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| Mark Tallentirer at The Guardian
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Fulham (1) 4 Charlton (0) 0
A hat-trick from Clint Dempsey inspired Fulham to a clinical 4-0 victory over League One Charlton Athletic.
Fulham fans have not exactly warmed to Martin Jol so far but with a few more results like this they will soon be eating out of the Dutchman's hand.
Their third manager in three years has had a tough first half of the season, with elimination from the Europa League and Fulham yet to reach the top half of the table, but for the visit of the League One leaders Jol picked the strongest side available, won the tie conclusively if not flatteringly and pointed out that he will continue to take the competition seriously. Who knows, that may help to stoke up enthusiasm?
Expressing surprise at the gaps in the home support and the swaths of empty seats in the televised early kick-off tie between Birmingham City and Wolverhampton Wanderers, Jol said: "The FA Cup was always a sell-out when I played [for West Bromwich Albion] and even [as a manager] with Spurs. But 20,000 [today] is OK and I hope the feeling and appreciation for the competition will remain the same.
I think that the FA Cup is the best competition in the world. I hope we can go to the final this year because we haven't done a lot since when is it? It's a long time ago, so that would be fantastic."
It is 37 years to be precise and, with an away draw against Everton in the fourth round, Fulham are three games from a Wembley semi-final. They proceed with optimism, moreover, ending a week which began with a famous win over Arsenal by seeing Clint Dempsey score a hat-trick in what became a routine win in another London derby.
"Clint's a great sportsman and plays hard," Jol said. "That's always nice to know. He's an American boy and every training session he wants to win. He's got the eye of the tiger. He can play in a 4-4-2 and he can play from midfield as well. He plays wide but he's not a wing player and now he's more like an attacking No10 and he plays there for the national team as well. It's a great joy to know he can play in different systems. I've got width on the left and the right and we can play with a lot of style. That's what we are trying to do."
Time was, and not that long ago, when this fixture would have seen Charlton Athletic ring the changes and still expect to progress but not any longer as they fight to recover the ground lost after the disastrous tenure of Iain Dowie put them into freefall, and a sold-out section of 7,000 travelling fans were there to sample life as it used to be. Their team took it seriously, too, even after they slipped behind early on, when a Danny Murphy through-ball was deflected into Dempsey's path and he gave Fulham the lead.
Charlton had already had an effort kicked off the line and created a few more half chances while in the first 15 minutes of the second half they besieged the Fulham goal, Bradley Wright-Phillips seeing the best of their chances blocked by the David Stockdale's legs while Danny Green had a 30-yarder turned over by the keeper.
Dempsey then combined with Bryan Ruiz for the best of the goals before the Costa Rican went over the goalkeeper John Sullivan for a penalty which Dempsey converted for his first hat-trick in the English game and the substitute Damien Duff scored the fourth with a shot that took a big deflection. The Charlton side and the fans stuck with it until the end, however, and the team were given a huge ovation after Chris Powell sent the players down to acknowledge them at the final whistle.
"Our fans were fantastic, they really were," said the impressive Bradley Pritchard, one of 22 signings made by Powell since the summer and who was making only his third start for Charlton. "They kept us going, they were pushing us on. From the moment we came out we could just hear the roar. They were like a 12th man but you need 13 or 14 to stop Fulham. If you give them any chances, they will take them. We had a few and didn't take them but 4-0 doesn't reflect it. We were hoping for a nice Cup run."
Fulham are still intent on just that and, with Jol in charge, their fans can be assured that they will be giving it their best shot.
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