WHIPPING BOYS WOLVES were sunk yet again as they matched their worst run of Premier League results for a whole 12 months.
Strikes by Ryan Sessegnon, Harry Wilson and an own goal from sub Yerson Mosquera condemned the bottom team to a tenth match without victory as they plummet headlong towards relegation.
But it’s nothing unusual as boss Vitor Pereira’s predecessor Gary O’Neill masterminded the exact same dismal run this time last year.
O’Neill won the 11th at home to Southampton who were even worse.
Pereira takes his shambolic squad to Club World Champions Chelsea next week assuming he is still in the job given the nature of this latest abject performance.
A harsh first half sending off for defender Emmanuel Agbadou left Wolves down to ten men for almost an hour but they could have had 22 players on the pitch and still lost such is the air of despondency in the camp.
From start to finish they were third, perhaps fourth best, even though there were only two teams in the game.
The long-suffering fans were calling for head coach Pereira’s head long before half time and slagging off chairman Jeff Shi too and you cannot blame them.
It was odds on that the first goal of the five 3pm Premier League games played would be conceded by Pereira’s shambolic side.
And it was so easy for Fulham to make the early breakthrough in the ninth minute with a three man move combined with a crucial error in midfield piling on more misery for the top flight’s worst club.
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Santiago Bueno slipped and failed to control a driven pass through the centre circle from Calvin Bassey.
His error handed possession to Raul Jimenez who released Ryan Sessegnon with a first time angled ball towards goal.
The Fulham wing back burst forward and without needing to ride anything that resembled a tackle, he stroked the ball past helpless Wolves keeper Sam Johnstone from just inside the box.
It was Fulham’s first goal at home in the Premier League since September 20.
Marco Silva’s side have hardly enjoyed the best of form themselves with four successive defeats seeing them spiral towards the foot of the table in the company of bottom club Wolves.
And even after gaining an early advantage it was hardly swashbuckling stuff from them as they struggled to build on their lead.
Wolves are there for the taking week in, week out. The fans resigned to relegation already and the players punch drunk from eight defeats in ten now.
Right back Ki-Jana Hoever summed it up. Exchanging verbals with exasperated keeper Johnstone after the full back conceded a corner under no pressure soon after they went behind.
More raised hands and eyebrows in the Wolves team when the Dutchman inexplicably booted the ball across the pitch and into Craven Cottage’s new Riverside stand later in the first half for no apparent reason.
When the season is going this badly, Lady Luck tends to turn her back on you and nine minutes before half time she ran out on the visitors.
Wanderers’ centre back Emmanuel Agbadou was given a straight red card for legging over young Fulham forward Josh King as the pair raced towards the box.
The reason given was for denial of a goalscoring opportunity. It’s actually surprising that anybody playing for Wolves actually knows what one of those is at the moment.
Ref John Brooks’ decision was vindicated by a VAR check and Pereira’s men had an uphill battle to come back from a goal and a man down with 54 minutes still on the clock.
Winger Wilson added Fulham’s second goal 17 minutes into the second half with a tasty curled effort from inside the box after Wolves failed to clear sustained pressure.
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And Mosquera – a half time sub – put the tin hat on another miserable day when he turned in a cross from first scorer Sessegnon with a quarter of an hour left.
If it hadn’t been for keeper Sam Johnstone’s cracking saves from Kenny Tete, Wilson and Samuel Chukwueze it would have been even worse.
