A priceless Crysencio Summerville goal was the difference between two misfiring teams at Craven Cottage tonight.
Fulham, as is so often the case following a much-heralded victory - that being their humbling of Tottenham last weekend - failed to reproduce similar form against a determined and resilient West Ham, who also struggled to live up to recent praise for much of this tightly-fought London derby.However the red-hot Summerville secured an absolutely vital three points after taking advantage of a lapse in concentration by Cottagers' 'keeper Bernd Leno, to convert what proved to be the only goal of the game - a match that saw the Hammers survive an additional six minutes of added-on time, plus an extra three minutes and 22 seconds on top of that, which rookie referee Matt Donohue deemed appropriate to allow.
West Ham, playing an attacking 442 formation started strongly and tested Leno within the opening 30 seconds of the game through Taty Castellanos.
However Nuno Santo's side - who never really found their rhythm, until a second half switch saw the ineffective Wilson replaced by an extra pair of legs in midfield - in the shape of Soungoutou Magassa - made the breakthrough with what, on the clock was 25 minutes to play (in reality, 34).
An enforced error, Leno's mis-hit pass to Calvin Bassey was pounced upon by the Dutchman who cut inside before picking his spot through a crowd of Fulham players - much to the relief of team mate Castellanos, who was perfectly poised and unmarked to Summerville's right with an open goal ahead of him.
Fulham, although some distance from the side which tormented Tottenham did have their moments and were awarded a penalty at the end of the first half when Tom Cairney went to ground under a challenge from Castellanos.
However West Ham - who had themselves been denied a first half penalty appeal when Alex Iwobi handled the ball with the upper half of his arm from a corner - were left breathing a collective sigh of relief, when Sonohue reversed his decision after a trip to his pitch-side monitor confirmed Cairney had kicked Castellanos, rather than the other way round.
Mads Hermansen, collecting his third clean sheet from West Ham's last five Premier League fixtures was rarely involved to any great degree until the final stages when he produced a stunning fingertip save to deny Timothy Castagne and earn Santo's side three vital points in the battle against the drop.
We'll have a full match report for you soon...
West Ham Utd: Hermansen, Wan-Bissaka, Todibo (Mavropanos 90+3), Disasi, Diouf, Soucek, Fernandes (Kante 90+3), Bowen (c), Summerville (Traore 89), Wilson (Magassa 61), Castellanos
Unused subs: Areola, Walker-Peters, Scarles, Kilman, Lamadrid
Goals: Summerville (65)
Booked: Wan-Bissaka, Fernandes, Kante, Bowen
Fulham: Leno, Tete (Castagne 82), Bassey, Diop, Robinson, Berge (Sessegnon 82), Cairney (c) (Bobb 61), King (Smith Rowe 61), Iwobi, Chukwueze, Jimenez (Muniz 61)
Unused subs: Lecomte, Andersen, Reed, Lukic
Booked: Bassey, Robinson
Possession: FFC 60%-40% WHUFC
Shots/on target: FFC 13/5-9/3 WHUFC
xG: FFC 1.01-1.09 WHUFC
Referee: Matt Donohue
Attendance: 27,191
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