Football: Soccer-Wasteful Brighton held to home draw by Fulham

BRIGHTON, England (Reuters) -Brighton & Hove Albion’s search for a return to winning ways in the Premier League continues after they were held to a 1-1 draw by Fulham at the Amex Stadium on Sunday.

After three league games without a win, a dominant first-half performance where Evan Ferguson scored his fifth goal of the season in the 26th minute looked to have set up Brighton to claim victory, but Joao Palhinha equalised in the 65th minute.

Brighton remain in seventh place, level on 17 points with Newcastle United, and Fulham stay in 14th with 12 points.

“I think we had too much respect for them in the first half, we didn’t decide well when to press, it wasn’t a collective pressure. A lot of the time we arrived late,” Fulham manager Marco Silva said.

Brighton’s lead came when Pascal Gross bided his time before playing a pass through to Ferguson and the Irish striker’s first touch saw him control with his right before side-footing a left-foot shot past Fulham keeper Bernd Leno.

With Brighton’s attacks as persistent as the rain which fell all afternoon, they should have been further ahead before the interval after dominating possession and chances on goal, but they were made to pay by Palhinha in the second half.

The visitors made the most of Brighton’s poor attempt to play out from the back, when Alex Iwobi gained possession before Mahmoud Dahoud’s pass fell to Palhinha who drilled his shot into the top corner from the edge of the area.

“We controlled the game, they scored out of nothing really. We probably had a sloppy 15 minutes and allowed them to come into the game and then they’ve taken their chance,” Brighton defender Adam Webster said.

Brighton’s first attack came in the seventh minute which saw Leno pull off two saves. First, he pushed away a Carlos Baleba curling shot and then Adam Lallana’s cross was almost bundled into the net by Simon Adingra but Leno kept it out.

Brighton had further chances either side of Ferguson’s goal, but a mixture of poor finishing and Leno’s fine goalkeeping meant Fulham were still in the tie going into the second half.

After the break it was Brighton who again came closest to extending their lead when Lewis Dunk’s free kick rocked the top of the crossbar, but it was Fulham who found the equaliser.

“Second half was completely different. We were much more on the front foot. We pressed them higher and our reaction was really good. We have to give credit to the players,” Silva added.

Both sides had chances to win the game late on as Fulham grew in belief having finally found the net, but an entertaining tie ended in a draw.

(Reporting by Trevor Stynes, editing by Pritha Sarkar and Clare Fallon)