LONDON, Sept 14 (Askume) – Danny Ings scored a last-minute goal to give West Ham a surprise 1-1 draw with Fulham in the Premier League at Craven Cottage on Saturday.
Fulham took the lead in the 24th minute when Raul Jimenez scored from close range following Emile Smith Rowe’s pass to give the home side the lead.
West Ham offered little threat in the first half and looked set to come home empty-handed, but Ings came on late in extra time to surprise the home side.
“It’s a big disappointment for us because we played well before. We were obviously the best team on the pitch,” Fulham manager Marco Silva told the BBC.
Fulham are 11th with 5 points and West Ham United are 14th with 4 points.
Adama Traore had two chances to score in the first half against Fulham and should have done better to meet Alex Iwobi’s cross, but the ball went over his head.
Silva was booked after reporting that Traore was challenged by Maximilian Kilman, who was following Traore from behind as he was about to shoot on the final challenge.
“In my opinion it was clearly a penalty. It’s hard to understand why it wasn’t a penalty in those circumstances,” Silva said.
Jiménez made his first league appearance of the season, joining Fulham in place of Rodrigo Muñiz, and looked like he had scored enough to take all three points.
Emile Smith Rowe crossed the offside line after receiving a long pass from Andreas Pereira, ran to keep the ball in motion before pulling back six yards, into the penalty area, Jiménez outran his marker and fired past the goalkeeper.
West Ham failed to find a target in the first half and Fulham almost doubled their lead when Pereira missed Smith Rowe’s cross in the opening seconds of the second half.
West Ham finally challenged the Fulham goalkeeper just after the hour mark but Bernd Leno equalised before Jarrod Bowen’s close-range effort was saved.
Traore had another chance with 10 minutes remaining, but missed his shot again, giving Fulham the chance to claim a win despite West Ham’s decline.
In the fifth and final minute of overtime, Bowen extended his arm to pull back a pass and Ings touched the ball to create space before beating the goalkeeper and hitting the near post.
There was still time for Fulham to score the winning goal but Calvin Bassey sent the ball into the penalty area from a free-kick and although they were unbeaten in their previous three league games, it certainly looked as though they had missed out on the two points.
