Raul Jimenez scores controversial winner as Fulham beat Nottingham Forest

Raul Jimenez’s controversial penalty clinched Fulham a 1-0 win at the City Ground and halted Nottingham Forest’s unbeaten Premier League start.

Jimenez converted his 50th goal in the English top flight early in the second half after a lengthy VAR check, which ended with referee Josh Smith viewing the pitch-side monitor.

Forest had won two and drawn three of their previous five matches and their highest crowd in over a decade – 30,139 – was denied a first home league win since April.

But Forest’s fans were left frustrated as a second VAR decision went against them and Fulham – now unbeaten in their last five league games – had their measure.

Two of the Premier League’s in-form teams failed to find the spark to ignite a largely uneventful first half, which passed by with few noteworthy incidents.

Awoniyi Taiwo, who made his first league start of the season, fashioned the game’s first chance as his improvised overhead kick from Elliot Anderson’s near-post flick-on flew wide of Bernd Leno’s right-hand post.

Forest fans thought Chris Wood had given them the lead soon after when he poked home Nikola Milenkovic’s knock-down in the 25th minute, but VAR confirmed the striker was offside.

Fulham had enjoyed more possession up until that point and were tidy with it, but Jimenez’s low shot on the turn two minutes later was their first effort on target.

Awoniyi was replaced by Anthony Elanga during the interval and moments after the restart the game was ignited when Fulham were awarded a contentious penalty.

Andreas Pereira went tumbling under Murillo’s challenge and, after checking the pitch-side monitor, Smith pointed to the spot.

Jimenez converted his third league goal of the season in the 51st minute amid a chorus of boos from