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Fulham’s Reserve Team notched their fourth consecutive victory on Monday evening with a deserved win over Tottenham at Leyton Orient. Goals from Wayne Brown, Giles Barnes and Matthew Briggs secured the three points for Billy McKinlay’s in-form Whites.
Both Fulham and Tottenham took to the field with a number of familiar names in their respective line-ups. The home side started the match with Gareth Bale, Jamie O’Hara, Ricardo Rocha and Frazier Campbell – whilst the Whites’ starting eleven featured Toni Kallio, Zoltan Gera, Erik Nevland, Julian Gray and Giles Barnes.
The Whites took the lead in the 33rd minute through a Wayne Brown penalty after alert work from Erik Nevland. The Norwegian striker did well to anticipate Chris Gunter’s headed back pass and was felled in the penalty area by Spurs keeper Ben Alnwick. Brown made no mistake from the spot.
Nevland came close to finding the back on the net himself in the second half but his well-struck 30-yard effort hit the crossbar.
Billy McKinlay’s side doubled their lead four minutes before the stroke of half time when Giles Barnes curled a spectacular free kick into the top corner of the net leaving Alnwick with no chance.
Substitute Matt Briggs rounded off the scoring for the Whites in added time when he managed to convert Toni Kallio’s cross with a header from close range.
Speaking after the match, Reserve Team Manager Billy McKinlay was pleased with the outcome.
“I’m delighted with the result and more importantly the performance,” he said. “We played some good stuff in the first half and our attitude to play was spot on. Everyone worked hard and it was a pleasing result all round.
“It was a good game between two fairly strong sides, they had some experienced players out there so that was pleasing. Going in two-nil up at the break was really satisfying. They upped their game in the second half which was expected but we looked fairly comfortable even if we didn’t pass the ball as well in the second half.
“It was also pleasing to see Adam Watts come back and get his second full game in. We had a reasonable shape to the team and it looks like the lads had a fair understanding of what we were looking for and that’s the main thing – we were looking for good individual performances within a team structure so they can then go up and do that for the First Team.”
Fulham: Foderingham, Stoor, Kallio, Watts, Smalling, Saunders, Gera (Marsh-Brown 65), Brown, Nevland (Uwezu 65), Barnes (Briggs 75), Gray.
Subs: Bettinelli, Briggs, Marsh-Brown, Harris, Uwezu.
Spurs: Alnwick, Gunter, Bale, Livermore, Rocha, Caulker, Giovani, O'Hara, Campbell, Taarabt, Townsend.
Subs: L Butcher, Rose, Berchiche, Mason, Obika.