Victorious Northampton manager
Kevin Wilson is preparing for a much rougher ride in the return leg at Craven Cottage.
The Cobblers boss is expecting Jean Tigana to field a stronger side after making 11 changes from the line-up that beat Birmingham at the weekend.
Wilson said "I'm sure they might stick their first team out for the next one.
"But we enjoyed tonight and everybody's going to have a good night after beating them, because we deserved it."
Man of the match Jamie Forrester is also expecting a stronger Fulham side and revealed the boost the Cobblers got from Tigana's team selection.
He said: "We had an idea they might not field their strongest side and when we got the team, that obviously gave us a great lift.
"I think we deserved the victory tonight.
"We've given ourselves every chance in the second leg. Obviously it's looking to be backs to the wall time, but we're going to be very confident."
Tigana sent Steve Hayward out to face the cameras and the midfielder admitted that he and his team-mates missed the chance to make the most of the rotation system in operation at Craven Cottage.
Tigana fielded an entirely different side, but saw them produce a decidedly below-par performance in defeat.
Hayward said: "We didn't play particularly well even though we had a few chances.
"It was a chance for the lads who haven't been playing to shine tonight, but we let ourselves down a bit. We're disappointed not to win, every professional footballer is.
"You've got to go out there and prove a point to the manager, that's all you can do. We let ourselves down a bit, we didn't play well.
"But hopefully we've got a chance in the second leg to turn it over."