EFL

Fulham and Mitrovic send goal records tumbling as Cottagers clinch Championship title

By Sports Desk May 02, 2022

Fulham sealed the Championship title with a thumping 7-0 win over Luton Town, as Aleksandar Mitrovic set a new goalscoring record for a 46-game season.

Having wrapped up an immediate promotion back to the Premier League by beating Preston North End last week, Marco Silva's Whites confirmed their status as second-tier Champions with a win that sent several records tumbling at Craven Cottage.

Mitrovic, who was recently crowned Championship player of the season after an incredible individual campaign, beat Guy Whittingham's long-standing record of 42 goals in a 46-game English league season, set in Portsmouth's 1992-93 campaign, also in the second-tier.

The Serbia international scored Fulham's fourth and seventh goals to take his tally to 43 in 43 appearances this season, with the Cottagers having one league game still to play.

Although Mitrovic's tally is some way behind the all-time second-tier record (Middlesbrough's George Camsell hit 59 goals in 1927-28), he has now outscored this season's second-highest goalscorer – Bournemouth's Dominic Solanke – by 14 strikes, as Fulham reached 106 league goals for the campaign.

In doing so, Silva's side became the first to score 100 goals in a single second-tier season since Manchester City reached 108 in 2001-02, a tally they could yet better when they visit Sheffield United on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Fulham also became the first team since Tottenham's 1960-61 double winners to score 50 goals both home and away in a single league campaign across the top four tiers of English football. 

Remarkably, Luton, who could yet join Fulham in the Premier League via the play-offs as they sit sixth with one game remaining, are also the third team to lose 7-0 to Fulham this season, after Blackburn Rovers in November and Reading in January.

That means three of the five biggest margins of victory recorded in English league football this season have been set by Silva's men, who will hope to break their reputation as a 'yo-yo' club on their return to the top flight next term.

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