Fulham 1-0 Norwich City
- Published
Sean Kavanagh only made his Fulham debut in August
The Championship's joint-leakiest defence kept Norwich at bay as Fulham continued their encouraging form under Kit Symons with a home victory.
The only goal of the game came on the counter-attack with midfielder Sean Kavanagh firing home a low finish.
Norwich's Cameron Jerome was pulled back by Dan Burn after the break but Lewis Grabban's penalty hit the bar.
Josh Murphy also struck the woodwork as Norwich pressed, but Fulham held on to record their third win of the season.
Symons on Fulham v Norwich
Norwich had won their last four Championship away games but started slowly, and failed to force a single meaningful save from Fulham goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli in the first period.
Slow-starting Norwich |
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Norwich have now gone eight league games without scoring a first-half goal |
And some sloppy passing on the half-way line was punished as Lasse Vigen Christensen teed up Kavanagh to score his first goal for Fulham from the edge of the box.
Norwich City manager Neil Adams on defeat at Fulham
Burn nearly doubled the home side's lead, but his header from a Bryan Ruiz corner was cleared off the line by Wes Hoolahan.
Immediately after half-time, Burn was adjudged by the linesman to have fouled Jerome, but Grabban spurned his second spot-kick of the season, smashing the underside of the bar.
Fulham substitute Moussa Dembele then shot straight at John Ruddy before Norwich dominated the closing stages.
With 10 minutes left, substitute Murphy cut inside from the left and hit a curling shot against the crossbar, but although the Canaries piled on the pressure, the ball did not drop kindly for them in the box as Fulham's defence stood firm.
Fulham caretaker manager Kit Symons: "It was a display full of character which I was delighted with. All the time I'm in situ in this position I'll just keep doing what I do. That's working as hard as I can on the training pitch and trying to win games for this great football club.
"I'm pretty sure three points as often as possible is not going to hurt my chances. I'll just keep plugging away."
Norwich manager Neil Adams: "We're not picking up victories and that's the concern for me. We had 63 per cent possession which is massive away from home but in terms of creating genuine goal scoring opportunities, that didn't materialise.
"In terms of the performance and the way we're dominating the ball, it's fine."