Cottagers Ruin Emotional Night For Hammers

It seems like Fulham’s start to the season is going the same way as West Ham United’s did in August, as they have only won Carabao Cup games to date after they beat the Hammers 3-2 in Stratford on Tuesday night.

Konstantinos Mavropanos, Max Kilman, Morato, Lewis Orford, Arne Engels and Divine Mukasa all retained their places from the match against the Red Dragons, as Nuno Espírito Santo made five changes from the team that won so emphatically four days earlier.

Finlay Herrick made his home debut in goal, while there were also starts for Kyle Walker-Peters, Mohamadou Kanté, Pablo Felipe and Joshua Ajala. Oliver Scarles, Joël Piroe, Manor Solomon and Valentín Castellanos all dropped to the bench, while Mads Hermansen, Ezra Mayers, Airidas Golambeckis and Soungoutou Magassa also took their places amongst the substitutes.

As I mentioned in my preview to this game, former Irons’ goalkeeper, Coach and club legend Luděk Mikloško had sadly passed away on Monday morning at the age of 64 and, as you might imagine, the majority inside the stadium paid a fitting tribute.

They would have loved to have won for the Czech, but Álvaro Arbeloa’s men opened the scoring with their first attempt on goal after just theirteen minutes when Antonee Robinson picked up possession and played the ball out to César Palacios. The summer signing then found Rodrigo Muniz who headed past the youngster in the home sides’ goal.

There was still a large home crowd in attendance, even though this was a midweek encounter and to their delight, they were level within three minutes. A great team move involving Engels, Mukasa and Mavropanos ended with Morato claiming his first goal for the club just four days after being handed his first start. He beat visiting goalkeeper Benjamin Lecomte with a powerful header. In truth, he couldn’t really miss as he was only four-yards out when the Greek defender headed the ball back.

Although these two sides met in the top-flight last term, you could tell which side had the better players, as the Cottagers kept possession for longer than their opponents.

Fulham are without a Premier League win at present but, by the end of the season, they could suffer the same fate as the East Londoners did at the end of the last campaign. I say this because along with Espírito Santo’s men, they did waste good chances. However, with eight first-half minutes still to play, those in the away end were cheering again. The tables were turned this time around and Joachim Andersen found an unmarked Palacios, who did the rest and if the hosts were going to take anything from this game, then they would have to bounce back once again.

Well, they did put Arbeloa’s side under pressure just before the break and it eventually paid off. Ajala saw his shot blocked and the stand-in skipper headed wide from another Engels’ corner. The action then swung from end to end with Herrick stopping Muniz from getting a second goal, before Lecomte had to pick the ball out of his net again with almost the last kick of the half, as Felipe scored his first goal for the East Londoners. Let me tell you, it was a long time in coming!!!

When referee Gavin Ward blew the whistle for the break, it was all square. Espírito Santo’s side have managed to turn their previous ties around and they were aiming to do the same here.

The visitors again started the second-half on top but couldn’t add to their two goals. Muniz missed the target completely, while Robinson forced Herrick to tip his shot over.

Solomon was on the bench against his old club and he, along with Jarrod Bowen entered the fray on fifty one minutes to replace both Ajala and Mukasa.

The Israeli was proving to be a threat but, it was only a superb block that prevented him from putting the hosts in front for the first time in the contest. The visitors were thankful to Timothy Castagne for being alert to the danger.

Bowen’s resulting corner was headed wide by Mavropanos.

Just after the hour mark, both teams made substitutions. Arbeloa introduced both Manuel Ángel and Shea Charles for Hugo Larsson and captain Harrison Reed, while Valentín Castellanos was sent on to replace Felipe.

It was no time at all before Fulham’s Spanish Head-Coach felt it necessary to make more alterations. Gonzalo García, Joshua King and Oscar Bobb were all sent on for Muniz, Emile Smith Rowe and Kevin.

Soon after coming on, García fired over, while the former Manchester City youngster was the one who made a real impact. With twelve minutes of normal time to play, he put the ball past Herrick.

Five minutes later, Espírito Santo decided to make use of his final two changes. This meant that both Scarles and Piroe came on for both Morato and Orford.

Although it was late in the game by this point, there was still time for West Ham to equalise and take the game to penalties. Bowen tried his luck but, he unfortunately missed the target, while Castagne was in the right place once again to clear off the line from Castellanos.

After four consecutive league wins, the Carabao Cup adventure is over for the East Londoners. Having said that though, this year’s priority has to be promotion from the Sky Bet Championship and there is a huge game awaiting the Hammers before the extended international break, as they travel to The New Den on Saturday for a midday meeting with bitter rivals Millwall.