Aleksandar Mitrovic saved Aboubakar Kamara’s blushes on Saturday, scoring the winning goal in added-on time minutes after Kamara’s missed penalty looked like it had blown Fulham’s chances of winning this clash of the non-titans at the bottom of the league. 

Huddersfield suffered their seventh defeat on the bounce, which keeps them rooted at the bottom of the table, five points from safety.

Until the penalty incident in the 83rd minute this game was a lacklustre affair, where it seemed that the teams had decided that the ABC Murders had provided so much entertainment over Christmas that they could provide the post-stuffing lull.

It was a tense first-half, where the players on both teams seemed frozen by the ghost of relegation past, present and future. Keeping a sheet as clean as falling snow being the priority.

Fulham boss Claudio Ranieri rang the changes at half-time, replacing Jean Michael Seri and Alfie Maswon with Maxime Le Marchand and Kamara. 

Fulham improved and looked the most likely to score, especially after Ryan Sessengon joined the fray with 15 minutes remaining.

The penalty arrived when a cross from Joe Bryan was flicked by Kamara and inexplicably handled by Chris Lower.

Then chaos reigned. Kamara refused to give the ball to designated spot kick taker Mitrovic and promptly saw his effort saved by Jonas Lossl. On the sidelines Ranieri’s nostrils flared like an upset reindeer.

“It is impossible to explain,” said Ranieri. “When a man thinks only of himself he is not right. He did not respect me, the club, the team or the crowd.”

Ranieri has never seen anything like it in his long managerial career. He has seen players arguing over taking a spot kick but in the end they respect what the manager says. Not Kamara.

The bemusement continued because Kamara didn’t seem to feel there was a problem with him taking the penalty. After, all he had scored from the spot for Fulham at Old Trafford in early December. 

“I don’t think he understands what I was saying,” said Ranieri.

The consequences for Kamara could be great. “I don’t know if he is finished or will continue,” said Ranieri. “I could drop him from the squad but I have to think of the club first. If I think it’s good that he is in the squad we play him and if not we take him out.”

One suspects that if Fulham had many other options, Kamara would be frozen out. But relegation is too huge a price to pay for managers to let authority and respect be key to decision making. Playing Kamara will not be because Ranieri shows good will to all men.

For Wagner, the added-time goal that came from a counter-attack led by Sessegnon after Huddersfield pushed forward searching for a winner was a huge blow. They became the first team to lose seven games in a row in a single month since Leicester did so in April 2001.

“The whole month has been a disaster, it’s not possible 30 minutes after the game to think about the next game and the transfer window,” said Wagner. “Obviously it’s a low point.”