Fulham huff and puff in Cottage reverse – as once again they fail to overcome a setback

Fulham’s poor record of failing to recover from setbacks continued as they lost 1-0 to Sheffield United on Monday night.

The Whites have taken just one point after going behind in Championship matches this season and huffed and puffed against the Blades at Craven Cottage.

Marco Silva’s side are still top of the table going into the Christmas period but they are only three points clear of third-placed Blackburn, who are unbeaten in seven matches since a 7-0 mauling at the hands of the west Londoners – winning six of those.

Fulham have taken just seven points from a possible 18.

Whites midfielder Harrison Reed said: “Monday wasn’t good enough by our standards. They probably deserved the win.

“We’re top of the league. We don’t get too emotional. We’ll get back to the training ground andput things right. We’ll never get up. We know our form of late isn’t where it should be.”

Aleksandar Mitrovic hit the bar in the closing stages with Harry Wilson failing to get a follow up effort on target.

Serbian international Mitrovic had scored 12 goals in a purple patch of seven matches but has netted once in the last four games.

Silva was unhappy with Sheffield United’s timewasting.

“They played their game, breaking the intensity of the game, players falling down,” said the Fulham boss. “The referee allowed them to do. But it’s up to us to play against it, and play with a different intensity. We did a lot of unforced errors without reason.”

Fulham’s match at Swansea on January 3 is set to take place behind closed doors. The Welsh Government has taken the measure to combat the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

The restrictions, for all levels of sport in the country, start on Boxing Day.