Vincent Janssen was denied a last-minute equaliser by a fingertip save from Fulham goalkeeper Jesse Joronen as we met the Cottagers in a training ground friendly this afternoon (Saturday, July 16).

The striker’s near-post flick from Nacer Chadli’s cut-back was pushed beyond the far upright by Joronen at full-stretch as we tried to recover from conceding to Luca de la Torre moments earlier at Hotspur Way.

Ultimately it stayed 1-0 to the visitors but Mauricio Pochettino was able to run the rule over a number of Development Squad members over the 90 minutes, once again choosing to field a combination of senior and young players in the pre-season exercise.

The first period saw us move the ball around nicely without finding a way to penetrate the Fulham defence. Teenage centre-half Cameron Carter-Vickers was strong at the back for us while Nabil Bentaleb exhibited some tidy footwork and clever forward passes in search of Alex Pritchard, but the Cottagers stood firm.

Kieran Trippier almost picked out Heung-Min Son with a cross-field ball from the right, but it ran behind at the far post before the South Korean star could reach it.



Above: Victor Wanyama gets away from ex-Spur Scott Parker.

Cauley Woodrow’s deflected shot just after the half-hour mark had goalkeeper Michel Vorm scrambling low down to his right to tip wide while Floyd Ayité hammered the wrong side of the near post after ex-Spur Ryan Fredericks picked him out four minutes before the interval.

Another of our former players, Scott Parker, came on at the break as both sides made changes and again we played some neat football, Harry Winks shooting over the top before Shayon Harrison forced a fine save from Joronen with a left-footed half-volley out of nothing.

Chadli and Harrison again tried their luck with respective shots from distance before Fulham snatched the lead against the run of play on 88 minutes. Stephen Humphries’ cut-back from the left found de la Torre in space in the box and he drilled past substitute goalkeeper Luke McGee from 10 yards out.

In the 90th minute we almost found a response as new signing Janssen, picking up his first game time since his move from AZ Alkmaar earlier this week, was denied in impressive fashion by Joronen and, from the resulting corner, the goalkeeper pushed Harrison’s close-range effort up and over the bar – the last opportunity of the game.

Above: Vincent Janssen goes up for a challenge.