Sheffield United’s miserable start to life back in the Premier League continued with another defeat, this time at Fulham, where they lost captain Chris Basham to a serious ankle injury which forced him off on a stretcher midway through the first half.
Basham joins a lengthy injury list for Paul Heckingbottom who must be wondering if his luck will ever change after a chastening first eight games of the season in which his team remain winless having conceded 22 goals.
“He’s where he needs to be – in hospital with the doctors, said Heckingbottom. “Nobody wants to see that, ever. When it’s one of your own players, it’s tough. It’s terrible, it’s horrific.
“I was thinking about Basham and getting the points for him but it was the second goal which decided the game and seemed to knock the energy out of us. We’ve still got some naivety at this level.
“We are where we deserve to be but, at the minute, the things that can go against us are going against us,” he added.
It was all Fulham in the early stages with Auston Trusty deflecting Bobby De Cordova-Reid’s shot over after a low cross from Antonee Robinson and Willian seeing a fierce effort saved by a wonderful save from Wes Foderingham.
The game was then stopped for a lengthy spell after Basham crumpled as he attempted to cross the ball into the penalty area. Basham was taken off the pitch directly into the waiting ambulance.
Because Raúl Jiménez had failed to score for Fulham since being brought in to replace Aleksandar Mitrovic, Marco Silva opted to start Carlos Vinicius instead.
Fulham found the breakthrough eight minutes into the second half with a brilliant counter-attack goal finished off by De Cordova-Reid after fine contributions from Vinicius and Andreas Pereira.
Silva’s side were seemingly in full control but conceded after Issa Diop pulled up with injury as he brought the ball out of defence, making a gift of the ball to James McAtee. He fed Yasser Larouci whose cross was put into his own net by Robinson.
But there was time for another freak twist of fate in this strange game and this time it went the way of Fulham substitute Tom Cairney.
As he shot, Cairney slipped and deflected the ball against his standing leg, the inadvertent touch making it loop over Foderingham and against the crossbar before rebounding to hit the Blades keeper on the back of the head and fall into the net.
There was no way back for United and Harry Wilson struck the post for Fulham eight minutes from time before Willian capped a fine performance with a goal from a low shot which Foderingham should have saved.
“A well-deserved three points, an important win for us. First half was a very good level from us and we created a very good number of chances. But the players believed and they kept to the plan,” said Silva in assessment.
On Diop’s injury he added: “He has a crack in his foot. We have to wait and see but it doesn’t look good.”
