Well the Championship semi-final play-off’s are over and we now know who is going to Wembley, Derby County couldn’t hold on to their slender 1-0 advantage from the first leg at Pride Park on Friday.
Despite a great rearguard defensive display against Fulham, the Rams were undone by two well-worked goals by Ryan Sessegnon and Denis Idoi.
The first period was a classic cup tie as both Derby County and Fulham had chances but the resolute on their defending and World class goalkeeping by Scott Carson kept the Rams advantage at the break.
The second half was only in the second minute when Fulham capitalised on their young star Ryan Sessegnon. The young left-sided winger seemed to take a needless touch on the ball to control it but set himself up for a fiercely struck shot that beat Carson on his right-hand side.
Derby to their credit continued to push for the winning goal but Fulham had the bit between their teeth and went looking for the win.
The telling moments in the two-match semi-final came in the 66th minute of tonight’s match. A corner sent over was met by one of the smallest men on the pitch and his powerful glancing header beat Carson for the second time to give the Cottagers the advantage.
Derby who had started the game without the Championships leading scorer, Matej Vydra had to make changes and the introduction of Vydra, Nugent and Palmer never really added any further push to the Rams attack and the dream of reaching this seasons Championship play-off final was over for the Rams.
Craven Cottage
Championship Play-Off 2nd Leg
14/05/2018 8:45 pm
Referee: Chris Kavanagh
Fulham | Derby County | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sessegnon (47) Odoi (67) | |||||||
Bettinelli | Scott Carson | ||||||
Fredricks | Wisdom | ||||||
Odoi | Davies | ||||||
Ream | Keogh | ||||||
Targett | Forsyth | ||||||
Cairney | Huddlestone | ||||||
McDonald | Johnson | ||||||
Johannsen | Lawrence | ||||||
Kamara | Anya | ||||||
Mitrovic | Weimann | ||||||
Sessegnon | Jerome | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
Button | Roos | ||||||
Ayite | Palmer | ||||||
Christie | Pearce | ||||||
Fonte | Vydra | ||||||
Kalas | Nugent | ||||||
Norwood | Ledley | ||||||
Piazon | Hanson |
Game Statistics |
||
20 | Goal attempts | 14 |
10 | On Target | 1 |
9 | Corners | 6 |
8 | Fouls | 9 |
4 | Yellow Cards | 2 |
0 | Red Cards | 0 |
64 | % | 36 |