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John Hudson at Daily Telegraph |
Fulham (2) 2-5 (1) Derby
Derby County came from two goals down to storm into the quarter-finals. Moussa Dembélé's first goals for Fulham had fired the home side into a 2-0 lead shortly before half-time.
But Chris Martin pulled one back before the interval and Fulham capitulated after the break, as goals by Johnny Russell, Jeff Hendrick and two from Simon Dawkins sent the Sky Bet Championship leaders through.
It was the second time Derby have put five past Fulham this season, although the Cottagers are a different side to the one sent out by the hapless Felix Magath that day in August.
Revitalised under Kit Symons, the caretaker manager, they had won five of their last eight games, and despite eight changes to their line-up they roared into the lead thanks to the teenage striker Dembélé, as well as some shambolic Derby defending.
In the 27th minute Craig Forsyth played an attempted backpass to Kelle Roos, Dembélé intercepted and, having rounded the Rams keeper, rolled it into an empty net.
In the 45th minute Roos inexplicably passed the ball to Omar Mascarell, who was robbed on the edge of the box by Bryan Ruiz.
The stand-in Fulham captain nudged the ball to Dembélé, who slotted past Roos for 2-0.
But moments later in first-half stoppage time, Tim Hoogland handled Mascarell's free-kick and Martin dispatched the penalty.
Derby drew level within two minutes of the restart when Dawkins reached the byline and cut the ball back for Russell to rifle home.
They took the lead in the 54th minute, Dawkins crashing in an angled drive from 20 yards which Gabor Kiraly got a hand to but could not prevent hitting the top corner.
Six minutes later Forsyth flicked on Bryson's cross and left Hendrick with a simple finish from six yards out.
At the end of a whirlwind 20-minute spell the fifth arrived when Russell crossed from the right and Dawkins found the net with an extravagant back-heel flick to put the seal on a stunning comeback.
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