Goals from Bobby Zamora are becoming almost commonplace. But a visit from Martina Navratilova to Craven Cottage? Now that was a rare treat.
Fulham will be glad to welcome back the tennis legend any time, for a fifth home win of the Barclays Premier League season left them eighth in the table. But the mood of the familiar face next to Navratilova — Niall Quinn, the Sunderland chairman and a bit of a legend in his own right — was far from light.
In a match that went to form, Steve Bruce’s team showed exactly why they have not won away from home since the opening day of the season. The superb performance against Manchester United at Old Trafford, where they were unlucky to take only a point, was a distant memory and afterwards Bruce somewhat reluctantly conceded that they were badly missing the injured Lee Cattermole in midfield.
After a very poor first half in which, as Bruce put it, they neglected “the nitty-gritty that you have to do away from home”, there was an improvement, but even then Mark Schwarzer in the home goal was hardly overstretched, a save at Kenwyne Jones’s feet being the big Australian’s most difficult task.
By and large, Jones and Darren Bent were well policed by the back section of arguably the best organised unit in the Premier League. Roy Hodgson’s Fulham were as disciplined and full of endeavour as ever and, in the first half, obtained much encouragement from playing off the sometimes underrated Zamora. “At that stage we were getting good balls up to him and he showed what an excellent technical player he is,” Hodgson said. “Afterwards, he was getting the sort of balls you have to fight for and we didn’t create so much.”
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Zamora’s main fight, it appeared after his goal, was with a section of the crowd. “Maybe he’s been reading too many of the blogs, but most people in this country have grown up with the game and know there is more to being a good footballer than scoring goals,” Hodgson said.
The Fulham manager might have been talking about Emile Heskey, that belatedly appreciated member of the England team, and Hodgson accepted the suggestion that Zamora might make an understudy to the Aston Villa centre forward in South Africa next year. Asked to compare the two, he said: “Obviously, I prefer Bobby because I know him well. But Heskey is very powerful and willing. Bobby is more technical.”
One of Zamora’s less celebrated techniques surfaced early. After a scare for Fulham when Steed Malbranque, still a popular figure in these parts, forced Schwarzer to make a low save, he wasted little further time in giving his side the lead.
Damien Duff laid the ball back to John Paintsil and the right back’s swirling cross was met by Zamora, who edged in front of Phil Bardsley and calmly steered a downward header wide of Martin Fulop.
It was Zamora’s sixth goal of the season, giving him a ratio of one every three matches. He has tended to be a one-in-six man since arriving at Craven Cottage and, though the wider range of his contribution is generally recognised, a section of the Hammersmith End support would like more goals.
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Zamora might have had another when, from Paul Konchesky’s cross, he sent a header looping against Fulop’s crossbar. Sunderland struggled to contain him and were lucky to go in at the interval only one down, Erik Nevland having shot straight at the goalkeeper from close range.
Bent volleyed wide just after Schwarzer’s save from Jones in a more animated second half from Bruce’s men, and the slimness of Fulham’s lead led to a degree of tension. Not enough as Bruce would have wanted. “We cannot just rely on home form,” he said.
Both Sunderland and Fulham would be in the lower half without it.
Fulham (4-4-2): M Schwarzer 7 — J Paintsil 7, A Hughes 7, B Hangeland 7, P Konchesky 7 — D Duff 7, C Baird 7, J Greening 6 (sub: K Dikgacoi, 86min), C Dempsey 7 — E Nevland 6 (sub: Z Gera, 67 6), R Zamora 8. Substitutes not used: P Zuberb?hler, Seol Ki Hyeon, D Murphy, B H Riise, C Smalling. Booked: Nevland. Next: Burnley (a).
Sunderland (4-4-2): M Fulop 7 — P Bardsley 6, M Turner 6, A Ferdinand 5 (sub: N Nosworthy, 30 6), K Richardson 5 — S Malbranque 5 (sub: F Campbell, 70 5), J Henderson 5, L Cana 6, A Reid 5 — D Bent 5, K Jones 5 (sub: B Zenden, 73). Substitutes not used: T Carson, D Murphy, P Da Silva, D Healy. Booked: Richardson, Bardsley. Next: Portsmouth (h).
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Referee: M Dean Attendance: 23,168