Fulham 7 Luton 0: Cottagers win Championship as they demolish play-off chasing Hatters with Mitrovic getting 43rd goal
THE perfect end, to a perfect season.
A record scorer in a team that has scored goals for fun since August.
And as Aleksandar Mitrovic was chaired off Craven Cottage after Fulham sealed the Championship crown with a magnificent seven, the belief around this corner of South West London was that this time they will make a genuine impression on the Prem.
Admittedly, Fulham’s yoyo run in recent years will have some fans wondering if they REALLY want another term of Prem toil.
But maybe this side can go up and stay there.
They certainly will have a chance if Mitrovic can match even half his tally for this campaign - especially with Welsh wizard Harry Wilson here to stay.
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For boss Marco Silva, the title-winning bubbly will taste more than sweet.
Many doubted the Portuguese when he succeeded Scott Parker after 18 months out of the game.
They don’t any more. Silva said: “We have had an amazing season but I believe we can create something even more special.
“I have this ambition - but if I didn’t have ambition at 44, the desire to be here, working, every single day, something would be wrong.
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“Now we HAVE to celebrate what we have done.
“I know we have another game on Saturday, a game that is important for many other clubs as well.
“But this is a moment for them to celebrate what they have done, the things they have achieved.”
This was less a contest than an exhibition, and Luton boss Nathan Jones has a massive job to make his side believe they can now bounce back by beating reading on Saturday to clinch a play-off slot and a chance for that £200m Prem bounty.
By contrast, Fulham are deservedly back in the big-time - and long before the end it was a question of just how many they would score.
You had to feel for Luton keeper Matt Ingram, making his debut after his emergency loan arrival from Hull and thrown straight into a defensive debacle.
Ingram was left horribly exposed as stunning strikes from Tom Cairney - Fulham’s 100th of the season - and Kenny Tete had the game won by half-time.
And what followed after the break was a demolition, orchestrated by Wilson and Fabio Carvalho - who will be on Liverpool’s books next term - and completed by Serbian wrecking ball Mitro.
Carvalho claimed the third, steering gloriously into the bottom corner after a lovely move involving Mitrovic and Wilson.
Then Mitrovic went level with Guy Whittingham’s 1992-93 second tier record for Portsmouth, bulldozing through from a Wilson pass to poke home.
Bobby de Cordova Reid, fed by carvalho, got number five, before substitute Jean Micheal Seri teased home past the groping Ingram from 30 yards.
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And Mitrovic, fittingly, had the final word, after Wilson burst from deep to find him in the inside left channel.
Cue the celebrations, a good-natured pitch invasion and the lifting of the trophy. And those hopes that August will not be the start of another battle for survival.
