Fulham (1) 3 Bury (0) 1
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| Jean Tigana |
Fulham had the statisticians searching the record books for a precedent as they moved smoothly into the last 16 of the Worthington Cup last night. Counting Lee Clark, who represented the England Under-21 side, the team sent out by Jean Tigana at Loftus Road included internationals of 11 different nationalities, one of whom, the Latvian Andrejs Stolcers, scored Fulham's first two goals.
It was perhaps little wonder in the circumstances that communication was Fulham's main undoing early on. Once they had gone ahead though, it was a different matter.
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| Andrejs Stolcers |
Forty was the number on Stolcers's back and it was in the 40th minute that he celebrated his first start of the season by capitalising on Barry Hayles's shrewd square pass after Terry Dunfield had slipped.
Stolcers added to his first senior goal since Boxing Day 2000 by bending a splendid shot round Glyn Garner in Bury's goal from the edge of the penalty area.
Tigana had retained only three players who had started the Premiership fixture against Arsenal on Sunday, but Fulham were now firmly in control against their Third Division opponents, who had not conceded a goal in their three earlier cup contests this season.
Bury were not helped by a serious shoulder injury suffered by Dunfield after 50 minutes. Even so, Andy Preece, their player-manager, was disappointed by their display. "We didn't impose ourselves," he said. "When we got the ball we didn't use it as well as we normally do."
Preece's men were lucky to survive two left-wing crosses from Stolcers following his goals. Facundo Sava, a half-time substitute, failed to benefit from either. The bounce beat him the first time, when he hooked over, and then his header forced a fine tip-over from Garner, who bettered that save when he flung himself full-length to deny Hayles.
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| Lee Clark |
By then Fulham had scored a farcical third goal, Clark heading home almost apologetically after Colin Woodthorpe - who had replaced Dunfield - had sliced Andy Melville's long ball conveniently into his path.
The goal from Jon Newby, Bury's top scorer, which came in injury time was rather more spectacular. Starting his run from the halfway line, Newby cut in from the right, beating three defenders before firing the ball past Taylor. With that Bury equalled a club record of scoring in 18 successive games.
Fulham:
Taylor, Finnan (Djetou 64), Wome, Melville (Hudson 79), Ouaddou, Goldbaek, Collins, Inamoto (Sava 45), Clark, Hayles, Stolcers.
Subs Not Used: Herrera, Boa Morte.
Goals: Stolcers 40, 53, Clark 73.
Bury:
Garner, Swailes, Unsworth, Nelson, Barrass (O'Shaughnessy 81), Stuart, Billy, Dunfield (Woodthorpe 49), Forrest, Newby, Preece (Nugent 73).
Subs Not Used: Redmond, George.
Goals: Newby 90.
Att: 6,700
Ref: D Pugh (Merseyside).