Fulham 2 Derby County 5
Fulham lost a two-goal lead as Derby stormed back to knock them out of the Capital One Cup with a blistering second-half display.
Moussa Dembele scored his first senior goals – both coming after defensive aberrations by the visitors – and Fulham seemed to be heading for the quarter-finals.
But Chris Martin blasted home a penalty with the last kick of the first half, Johnny Russell equalised two minutes after the break and as Fulham folded, Simon Dawkins scored twice and Jeff Hendrick also helped himself to a goal.
Fulham’s under Kit Symons
Played: 9
Won: 5
Drawn: 1
Lost: 3
Goals for: 17
Goals against: 13
Fulham started well and Dembele pounced on left-back Craig Forsyth’s woeful back-pass and rounded keeper Kelle Roos before tapping into an empty net for the opener.
And when Omar Mascarell, who was not helped by Roos’ ropey pass, was robbed by Bryan Ruiz near the edge of the box, Dembele slotted home to double the Whites’ lead in the 45th minute.
That looked like giving them a two-goal cushion at the interval but after Tim Hoogland handled Mascarrell’s free-kick, Martin made no mistake from the spot.
Worse followed for Fulham when an error by centre-back Stephen Arthurworrey, making his debut, led to Derby levelling early in the second half.
The off-balance Arthurworrey failed to clear Dawkins’ low cross and Russell was able to apply the finish.
Dawkins put Steve McClaren’s side ahead seven minutes later when he cut in from the left-hand edge of the penalty area and fired the ball into the far corner.
And after Hendrick rounded off a nice move by blasting into the roof of the net from close range, an unmarked Dawkins grabbed his second, cheekily flicking Russell’s cross past keeper Gabor Kiraly at the near post.
Fulham: Kiraly; Hoogland, Hutchinson, Arthurworrey, Kavanagh; Roberts (McCormack 71), Zverotic, Hyndman, G Williams (David 71), Ruiz (Eisfeld 85), Dembele.
Subs not used: Bettinelli, Stafylidis, Parker, Burn.
Follow West London Sport on Twitter
Find us on Facebook
This post was last modified on 28/10/2014