Fulham ended their five-game winless run in all competitions with a deserved home victory over Wigan Athletic.
Joe Bryan fired into the bottom corner shortly after half-time to break the deadlock and Tom Cairney’s sweet strike from the edge of the box found the top corner to seal the three points late on.
Those two second-half goals came after the hosts had controlled a goalless first half but had been thwarted by in-form Wigan goalkeeper David Marshall.
The result leaves the Latics with just one win in their past 26 away league matches since August 2018 and with just eight points from their nine league matches so far this term.
Scott Parker’s side rose to seventh in the table with what was their third home win of the campaign.
Wigan had arrived at Craven Cottage after a recent upturn in form, after ending a five-game losing streak with two consecutive draws and then beating Charlton 2-0 last time out.
But Fulham, who had drawn their previous three Championship games 1-1, dominated the latter parts of the first half and went close through Aleksandar Mitrovic and Anthony Knockaert, with the latter denied by Marshall’s fine near-post save.
After left-back Bryan’s opener on the rebound, Marshall again parried a Knockaert effort following a fine run from the winger.
But as the away side looked for a leveller, the Latics keeper could do nothing about Cairney’s perfectly-curled strike in the latter stages, after Knockaert had squared the ball to him outside the area.
Fulham boss Scott Parker: “I think everyone was relieved. I was relieved on the side, along with the coaches. Certainly the players, and I think the fans were as well.
“I think over the last few weeks the results haven’t been there, but performances certainly have. We have probably played better over the course of the last few weeks and not got the results.
“I think the result was key tonight obviously, and the second goal going in probably just took that edginess off us.
“And I understand that. We have been wounded over the last few weeks and when you have sucker punches like we have over the last few weeks it has an effect. And certainly it has had an effect on the players and it probably had an effect on the crowd at times.
“But the players were superb tonight and it’s a good result.”
Wigan manager Paul Cook: “It was a fair result. I’ve no problems with the result in any shape or form.
“I think Fulham are a very, very good side and they played very well tonight and deserved the win.
“We keep going. It was always going to be a tough night. We stuck at it with admirable qualities without ever looking like we would get back into it.”
