Fulham see off Albion in nine-goal thriller

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Under-18s were on the wrong end of a 6-3 score-line.

Charlie Hanson

2021-01-25T06:00:00Z

Andy Moran was involved in all three of Albion's goals against Fulham.

Mark Beard's under-18s were seen off by table-toppers Fulham in an end-to-end affair on Saturday.

Matthew Dibley-Dias opened the scoring just three minutes in with a superb free-kick into the top right corner from 25-yards, but Albion brought it level in the 18th minute when Zak Emmerson slotted home after Andy Moran played him in.

The parity was short-lived as two minutes later Kieron Bowie fired in from 12 yards after the ball was chested down into his path.

Albion were again back on level terms after 25 minutes – Moran this time getting a goal of his own as he smartly lifted the ball over Cottagers keeper Dermot Mee.

From there the game got away from Albion, with Stefan Parkes adding a third for Fulham ten minutes before the break.

Mika Bierith made it 4-2 after 57 minutes, with Bowie netting his second of the afternoon and Jay Stansfield adding a sixth for the hosts.

Cameron Peupion fired in late on against the Cottagers.

Cameron Peupion grabbed the ninth and final goal of the game in the 88th minute as Moran played a hand in his third goal of the afternoon, but it wasn't enough to stop Albion falling to a fourth league defeat of the campaign.

Professional development phase coach James Baxter said, “It was an end to end game, but Fulham were definitely more clinical in the final third and defended the box better than us.

“The game became stretched at 4-2 as we chased the game and there was little structure to it. That opened things up and we were punished.

“We could have stopped some of their goals with better defending. This year we have been good defensively, it just happened to be one of those games where we weren’t at our best.”