Fulham v Huddersfield: Cottagers can clinch narrow success

“Only two of Town’s road trips have delivered four goals or more and the visitors should be capable of making the ante-post favourites work hard for the points”

Mitrovic fires Fulham to vital victory

Aleksandar Mitrovic scored his 31st league goal of the season as Championship table-toppers Fulham strengthened their grip on top spot with a narrow 1-0 win at Hull last weekend. The Cottagers were not at their best in difficult weather conditions but did enough to claim top honours, their sixth success in their past seven league games.

Marco Silva‘s men had the better of the play in the first half but gave away a golden opportunity to Hull that wasn’t taken. And Mitrovic made the hosts pay for their profligacy in the second-half, heading home a cross from Liverpool loanee Neco Williams to put the Whites ahead. From there, Fulham never really looked like surrendering their advantage.

Silva was naturally delighted with the result post-match, saying: “A tough win, like we expected. A tough place to play. Bad conditions – the weather, the pitch. We knew before the match that as the game went on, it would get worse and worse and worse. But I think we controlled most of the situations and I’m really happy to get an important win.”

Huddersfield extend unbeaten streak

Huddersfield extended their unbeaten streak to 14 games across all competitions as the Terriers played out a competitive goalless draw with Sheffield United last Saturday in a Yorkshire derby played in difficult conditions. Carlos Corberan‘s charges won the shot count and forced nine corners at the John Smith’s Stadium in another encouraging effort.

Town did have the ball in the net but Jon Russell’s effort was controversially ruled out for a foul on visiting goalkeeper Wes Foderingham, whilst two claims for a penalty were turned down. However, goalkeeper Lee Nicholls was called upon to make arguably the best save of the game when he turned away John Fleck’s threatening low drive after the break.

Post-match Corberan reserved special praise for his players, especially key man Nicholls, saying: “It would be impossible to be more happy with him. I would rather he didn’t touch the ball than have to make saves but the players have a lot of trust in him. He has had some clean sheets where he has made excellent saves and that was one of them today.”

Fulham have been dominant in recent head-to-head meetings with Huddersfield, posting 14 victories in the duos last 18 league contests (W14-D3-L1) since 1993. The Whites thrashed Town 5-1 in the reverse clash back in August and have claimed W6-D2-L0 in their eight league encounters at Craven Cottage over the past three decades.

Fulham 1.402/5 have claimed six wins from seven unbeaten outings since Christmas (W6-D1-L0), plundered an eye-watering 27 goals during that impressive sequence. Marco Silva’s men have proven dominant against the league’s lesser lights, yet the Whites have won just twice at home to top-half rivals, the last of which arrived way back in October.

Huddersfield 9.208/1 have performed above expectations to be perched inside the top-six. The Terriers are enjoying their best unbeaten streak for a decade – a 12-game sequence (W5-D7-L0) that also includes five clean sheets in Town’s most recent eight outings. However, Carlos Corberan’s men have failed to score in five of seven trips to the top-half.

Fulham’s fixtures feature the highest goals per-game average in the Championship this season with a lofty 3.47 goals. A massive 12/30 (40%) matches have produced four or more goals with nine (57%) of 16 at Craven Cottage surpassing the traditional Over 2.5 Goals 1.654/6 barrier, suggesting a high-scoring showdown could be on the cards.

But Huddersfield have tended to tighten up on their travels against the league’s leading lights. The Terriers haven’t been easy to oust since the start of December and will look to keep things tight against the division’s most fearsome forwardline. With that in mind, I’m happy to take a Fulham win and Under 3.5 Goals at a reasonable 1.9520/21 on the Bet Builder.

Only two of Town’s road trips have delivered four goals or more and the visitors should be capable of making the ante-post favourites work hard for the points in Saturday’s early kick-off.