Northampton v Fulham
Worthington Cup - Round One, Ist Leg
Full Time
The final whistle saw Fulham go down by one goal to Northampton who were promoted from the third division last year. Jean Tigana decided to give a rest to the first team in advance of two league games in the space of three days over the coming weekend, at home to Stockport and away at Norwich. However the squad appearing tonight still contained a number of internationals and a couple of one million pound plus players but overall the squad lacked conviction and paid the price.
Fulham are aiming to go from Division three to the Premiership in five years and quite rightly appear to be taking a hard nosed attitude when choosing between a possible Worthington Cup run and winning promotion.
Come On You Whites.
Subs
Davis has come on for Betsy and Cornwall is on for Peschie. Fulham still not playing well overall with the Cobblers missing a couple of good opportunities to increase their lead
Halftime
Fulham played better in the last 10 minutes of the first half than at any other period of the match.
First it was Boa Morte who sent in a fine shot followed a minute later by one from Fernandes. A minute or so later it was Lewis who went close this time with a header which forced a good save from the Cobblers keeper.
Jean Tigana will need to speak to the lads to show a bit more effort and commitment but no particular player is a lot worse than anyone else so no substitute called for at the moment
Goal One
Fulham are playing a bit shambolic at the moment and Northampton have profited by going 1-0 up through a shot from Gabbiadini. He had collected the ball just over the halfway line run on between Betsy and Symons placing the ball to the left of Marcus Hahneman
Squad
Tonight's team is a complete change from Saturday's squad and Tigana is making it even clearer that promotion is the main target
Marcus Hahneman
Wayne Collins, Kit Symons, Alan Neilson, Terry Phelan
Steve Hayward, Kevin Betsy, Eddie Lewis
Fabric Fernandes
Paul Peschisolido, Luis Boa Morte
Subs: Trollope, McAnespie, Davis, Cornwall, Thompson.
Source