Fulham vs Bournemouth. Premier League.
Craven CottageAttendance25,071.
Report and highlights as beaten hosts are reduced to 10 men
Saturday 27 October 2018 18:40, UK
Two goals from Callum Wilson and a David Brooks strike helped Bournemouth defeat 10-man Fulham 3-0 at Craven Cottage.
Wilson converted a 14th-minute penalty and added a second five minutes from time, after David Brooks (72) had given the Cherries a cushion.
Fulham ended the game with 10 men after Kevin McDonald received a second yellow for fouling Brooks soon after the second goal.
Slavisa Jokanovic's struggling side, who had only one shot on target, stay 18th, while Bournemouth remain sixth.
Both teams started at a high tempo but it was the visitors who were gifted an opener when Timothy Fosu-Mensah barged Wilson over in the box. The Bournemouth striker dusted himself off to send debutant Rico the wrong way in the 14th minute.
Aboubakar Kamara reacted quickly to a heavy touch from Asmir Begovic in the Bournemouth area to dispossess the goalkeeper only to then immediately throw himself to the floor in the hope of getting a penalty even though Begovic's leg was nowhere near the striker, who was rightly booked.
Fulham struggled to create chances before the break, with the best chance falling to Andre Schurrle who fired a volley from the edge of the box which was palmed to safety by Begovic.
With the hosts chasing the game in the 72nd minute, Brooks made the most of the extra space in the final third, latching onto a pass from Ryan Fraser and slotting the ball between Rico's legs.
Soon after he got the better of McDonald, forcing him to bring him down when heading towards goal to earn his second booking of the match.
Wilson was another to enjoy the space on offer to Bournemouth's attackers, especially when they had the one-man advantage, as he ran beyond the defence to get onto the end of another Fraser pass and fire powerfully beyond Rico from 12 yards.
The Scottish midfielder seemed to have a hand in everything positive Bournemouth did in the game as few could deal with his speed and intelligent passing, which created two of the goals.
Slavisa Jokanovic: "I am confident in myself always.
"I am working here three years, I know very well the players I have in my hand.
"This is hard work, this is not easy for me, for the team. We need to be brave, we need to push forward, play better football and to win the games."
Eddie Howe: "It's not perfect, there are definitely things we could have done better.
"I thought it was a much better performance than the one against Watford where we won 4-0 and got a lot of plaudits but there were aspects of the play that day which were below where we would want to be but today was a lot better and most aspects of the play were great.
"The three clean sheets in a row are huge for us and that's given us a real boost around the team."
Fulham travel to face Manchester City in the Carabao Cup fourth round on Thursday night.
Bournemouth host Norwich City on Tuesday night in the same competition.