West Ham United 2-1 Fulham
Pre-Season Match
West Ham United picked up their first win of pre-season on Thursday evening, holding off Fulham to triumph 2-1 in Austria.
The Hammers' goals came in a dominant first half, as Manuel Lanzini and Ashley Fletcher found the target.
Slaven Bilic again rotated his players, with only Josh Cullen playing more than 45 minutes, and Fulham's Ryan Sessegnon pulled one back late on.
But the Hammers held firm to ensure the Austrian leg of their European tour ended in victory.
It was the Hammers who were first to threaten when the lively Sofiane Feghouli made his way to the by-line and cut back dangerously, but just out of reach of Fletcher in the centre.
With 13 minutes on the clock, Cauley Woodrow advanced towards the Hammers box and shot low from 20 yards, but his effort lacked power and Darren Randolph dropped down to his right to save.
Less than 60 seconds later, West Ham were in front. Lanzini manufactured space for himself with a cute drop of the shoulder after Fletcher played the ball into him, allowing the Argentine to find the bottom left hand corner from 15 yards.
Shortly afterwards, West Ham were indebted to Randolph for keeping them in front with an outstanding reaction save to deny Sone Aluko, who looked certain to score when he fired goalwards following Floyd Ayite’s pull back.
Midway through the half, Lanzini went desperately close to doubling his tally, curling inches past the post after he again showed his dexterity in the box, dragging the ball back onto his left foot to take the defender out of the game.
Then, five minutes before the interval, Fletcher made it 2-0, robbing Fulham goalkeeper David Button as he tried to deal with a backpass to leave him the simple task of knocking into an unguarded net.
The Hammers made ten changes at the break, with only Cullen remaining from the starting XI and the opening stages of the second period passed without major incident.
A quick Fulham break on 67 minutes gave the Cottagers a shooting chance from the edge of the box, but Woodrow's effort was too close to Adrian, who gathered into his body.
At the other end, James Collins nodded a Robert Snodgrass corner back to Mark Noble, but he couldn't get over the ball and his volley flew off target.
With nine minutes left to play Aluko burst into the box and knocked through to Sessegnon, who poked home with the help of a slight deflection off Reece Burke to halve the deficit.
Fulham couldn't force another however, as the Hammers saw out time to secure the spoils.
West Ham United: Randolph (Adrian 46), Byram (Zabaleta 46), Ogbonna (Collins 46), Rice (Burke 46), Cresswell (Masuaku 46), Cullen (Makasi 77), Lanzini (Noble 46), Makasi (Obiang 46), Feghouli (Ayew 46), Holland (Snodgrass 46), Fletcher (Martinez 46)
Substitutes: Anang
Goals: Lanzini 14, Fletcher 40
Fulham: Button, Fredericks (Opoku 75), Sigurdsson (Ream 23), Djalo, Opoku (Sessegnon 46), Cisse (McDonald 46), Piazon (Aluko 75), Edun, Aluko (O'Reilly 46), Woodrow, Ayite (Cisse 75)
Substitutes: Rodak, Johansen
Goal: Sessegnon 81