Fulham eased back into second place in the Championship, thereby occupying that second automatic promotion place with a win over Sunderland, at Craven Cottage, on Friday night.
However, it wasn’t the most fluent of displays with the side looking as if the pressure was maybe getting to them.
Slavisa Jokanovic selected the same starting eleven for the fourth consecutive match, hoping his side could produce the fluent football they’d produced away to Millwall in the previous fixture.
But those inside Craven Cottage were to be silenced when relegated Sunderland took the lead, the goal coming from a low strike from Joel Asoro, in the 28th minute.
Fulham struggled to get back onto level terms and could have gone further behind, on the stroke of half-time when Ovie Ejaria appeared to be tripped in the Fulham penalty area.
But, with the Sunderland players still debating the referee, Peter Bankes, decision not to award the spot-kick, Fulham equalised before the half-time whistle could be blown when Lucas Piazon scored.
All square at half-time, Fulham finally edged ahead, for the first time in the game, in the 76th minute when Aleksandar Mitrovic headed home at the far post to give Fulham all three points.
The win stretches Fulham’s current unbeaten run, in the Championship, to 23 games.