LONDON (Reuters) -A late Danny Ings goal snatched an unlikely 1-1 draw for West Ham United at Fulham in their Premier League derby at Craven Cottage on Saturday.
Fulham went ahead in the 24th minute, with Raul Jimenez getting on the end of a pass from Emile Smith Rowe to find the net from close range and give the home side a fully deserved lead.
West Ham barely threatened in the opening half, and looked like coming away empty handed before substitute Ings struck late in added time to stun the home side.
“A big frustration for us because before that it was a good performance. It was clear we were the best team on the pitch,” Fulham manager Marco Silva told the BBC.
Fulham are 11th in the standings on five points while West Ham are 14th on four points.
The first half belonged to Fulham, with Adama Traore having a couple of chances before the goal to open the scoring, and should have done better from an Alex Iwobi cross but headed harmlessly over.
Silva was booked after he complained about a challenge from Maximilian Kilman on Traore who chased back to make a last gasp challenge with Traore about to shoot.
“It was a clear, clear, penalty in my opinion. It’s difficult to understand why it was not a penalty in that situation,” Silva said.
Jimenez was making his first league start of the season, chosen ahead of Rodrigo Muniz up front for Fulham, and his goal looked like being enough to take all three points.
Emile Smith Rowe beat the offside line after a long pass from Andreas Pereira and raced to keep the ball in play before pulling a pass back into the six-yard box where Jimenez raced in to get ahead of his marker and slide his shot past the keeper.
West Ham had failed to get a shot on target in the opening half and Fulham almost doubled their lead in the opening seconds of the second half when Pereira volleyed just wide from a Smith Rowe cross.
On the hour mark West Ham finally tested Fulham’s keeper, but Bernd Leno was equal to the close range effort from Jarrod Bowen.
With 10 minutes left to play Traore had another headed chance, but again couldn’t keep his effort low enough to find the target and Fulham were made to pay for not putting the game beyond an unimpressive West Ham.
The game was into the fifth and final minute of added time when Bowen stretched to pull back a pass and Ings took a touch to make space before rifling a shot which beat the keeper at his near post.
Fulham still had time for a winner, but Calvin Bassey headed wide from a floated free kick into the area and while they remain unbeaten in their last three league games, this will surely feel like two points dropped.
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes; Editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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