LONDON: Relegation, promotion, and now relegation again.

Fulham’s rollercoaster ride between the top two divisions of English football has taken the London club back out of the Pre­mier League, their fate sealed by losing to Burnley 2-0 on Monday.

Fulham joined Sheffield United and West Bromwich Albion in going down to the Championship, wrapping up the Premier League’s relegation battle at the earliest ever stage with three rounds still to go.

“I’m bitterly disappointed, I’m hurt, I’m gutted,” said Fulham manager Scott Parker, who also presided over the team’s relegation two seasons ago when he was in charge on an interim basis. “While it’s been looming over us for some time now, there’s no words I can put together other than I’m gutted we haven’t been successful this year.”

Burnley were one of four clubs along with Brighton & Hove Albion, Newcastle United and Southampton still mathematically not safe heading into the match at Craven Cottage.

After first-half goals from Ashley Westwood and in-form striker Chris Wood, Burnley was able to celebrate the prospect of playing a sixth straight season in the lucrative top flight a stunning achievement by manager Sean Dyche given the budget he works under and the fact his team had just two points after seven games.

The kind of stability Dyche has brought to Burnley is something Parker craves.

“The highs and lows and the rollercoaster of the journey that is, we need to work out exactly what we need to do now to try to keep a level about us,” the former England midfielder said.

“Over the coming weeks, we need to have a discussion and work out what we need to do to move forward and try to get off the rollercoaster we are on.”

Parker said he was committed to staying at the club, though that will ultimately be a decision for owner Shahid Khan, whose portfolio of sports teams also includes the NFLs Jacksonville Jaguars.

Khan also faces a period of introspection, with Fulham’s board overseeing another offseason of questionable recruitment, especially how late in the transfer window the club decided to bring in some of the new signings.

Fulham, who are 10 points from safety with three matches remaining, have been near the bottom of the league all season, the team’s porousness at the back initially the biggest flaw.

Parker was able to shore up the defence by the middle of the season helped by the impressive displays of loan signings Joachim Andersen, a centre-back from Olympique Lyonnais, and Alphonse Areola, a goalkeeper from Paris St Germain but that came at the expense of its attacking fluency.

Fulham have just 25 goals in 35 games, better only than last-placed Sheffield United.

“In between both boxes, we have had our moments and looked a good side,” Parker said. “Where we have fallen short is the other side of that.”

After beating Liverpool 1-0 at Anfield on March 7, Fulham were tied on points with fourth-to-last Brighton but haven’t won any of its seven games since.

“We cracked under the pressure a little bit,” said Fulham striker Aleksandar Mitrovic, the team’s star striker who has scored only three times this season. “We weren’t good enough, brave enough. We work hard, but we don’t have the quality at both ends.”

Though a draw would have briefly staved off relegation, Fulham desperately needed to win and they started well, with Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa and Ivan Cavaleiro both registering shots on target that Nick Pope saved comfortably.

Fulham were punished in the 35th minute when Matej Vydra chased a ball down the left flank and beat Andersen before pulling it back for Westwood to steer home as Burnley took the lead.

They were soon two up thanks to Wood, who rifled Josh Brownhill’s return pass into the top right corner a minute before halftime.

The home side looked more dangerous in the second half as they finally started to get some crosses into the box for Mitrovic, and the Serbian striker went close with two headers before the hour mark.

Areola was lucky to stay on the field when he seemed to handle the ball well outside penalty area, but the neither the on-field referee nor the VAR deemed the incident worthy of a red card.

But Fulham’s luck ran out at the other end of the pitch in the 70th minute when Zambo Ang­uissa’s shot beat Pope only to bounce clear off the underside of the bar.

Burnley were sold in February to a US-based consortium and Clarets manager Dyche was proud of the way the Clarets had coped on and off the field during some uncertain times for the northwest side.

It is important for the club, it is important for the town,” he said. It’s been a real challenging season with the sale of the club. There was not a lot of investment from the outgoing owners and we’ve had a lot of injury problems.”

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2021