Fulham ended Notts County's FA Cup run in ruthless style as they ran out 4-0 winners at Craven Cottage.
Two goals in either half in comfortable afternoon for Cottagers
Fulham ended Notts County's FA Cup run in ruthless style as they ran out 4-0 winners in the fifth round at Craven Cottage on Sunday.
The League Two outfit had travelled to London in high spirits after knocking out Premier League side Wigan on their own turf in the fourth round.
But the Magpies were brought back down to earth after just 22 minutes as Simon Davies opened the scoring after shooting on the turn into the bottom corner.
Striker Bobby Zamora doubled the home side's advantage shortly before the break with his 13th strike of the season, leaving County with a huge task to overcome in the second period.
Instead, matters got worse for the financially stricken club, as Damien Duff made it three on 73 minutes before substitute Stefano Okaka rounded off the score with his first goal for the club six minutes later.
The defeat rounds off a miserable week for County, who lost at Bournemouth on Tuesday, were sold for £1 to Ray Trew and then saw Sven Goran Eriksson resign as director of football in a turbulent few days.
As expected, the hosts made most of the early running. Luckily for the visitors Zamora fired just wide after latching on to Chris Baird's pass and spinning around Jamie Clapham.
Clever
Kasper Schmeichel was then called into action when Davies slipped a clever pass through the County defence. David Elm checked back to get rid of John Thompson but then had his finish blocked by the Danish goalkeeper.
The visitors had their first efforts on goal when Craig Westcarr went wide from the edge of the area, then Ben Davies had a long-range effort tipped over.
From the resulting corner, Lee Hughes had sight of goal and time to finish - but his effort was too close to Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer.
Despite encouraging signs, County were behind midway through the first half following a move started by Danny Murphy's delicate chip to Davies on the edge of the area.
The Wales midfielder had his back to goal but moved just inside the penalty area and fired on the turn, through Thompson's legs and into Schmeichel's far corner for his first goal of the campaign.
Fulham came close to doubling the lead just before the half-hour mark when Zamora won the ball in midfield and found Duff, but Schmeichel was equal to the finish after the winger had cut inside.
Close
County themselves were close to levelling just before Zamora made it 2-0, with Westcarr latching onto a flick by Hughes and forcing Schwarzer to save at full stretch.
Zamora made County pay for their miss when he collected Elm's backheel and lashed past Schmeichel four minutes before the break.
County continued to attack after the interval despite the setback of Zamora's goal just before half-time. Davies kept trying his luck from long distance and two attempts went just wide of Schwarzer's upright.
There was plenty of effort from the visitors but Fulham showed enough experience to hold them at bay, and they looked threatening on the counter-attack themselves.
Dave Kevan made a change just after the hour mark, bringing on Luke Rodgers for Clapham to add numbers in attack.
Duff's goal came 16 minutes from the end after Zamora slipped him through down the right flank, the Republic of Ireland winger cutting inside and firing home through Johnnie Jackson's legs.
Okaka took just three minutes to score after coming off the bench, racing through and firing powerfully past Schmeichel.
| Fulham |
Team Statistics |
Notts County |
| 4 |
Goals |
0 |
| 6 |
Shots on Target |
4 |
| 4 |
Shots off Target |
6 |
| 1 |
Blocked Shots |
1 |
| 5 |
Corners |
6 |
| 11 |
Fouls |
8 |
| 5 |
Offsides |
0 |
| 0 |
Yellow Cards |
0 |
| 0 |
Red Cards |
0 |
| 49.3 |
Possession |
50.7 |
|
