Crawley Town 2-0 Fulham

Fulham were knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Crawley Town on Tuesday night.

Despite having most of the ball, we struggled to create clear-cut openings, and were punished by our fired up hosts.

Goals in either half from Tom Nichols and Liverpool loanee James Balagizi did the damage, on a night to forget for the Whites.

As he suggested he would, Marco Silva rang the changes for our trip to West Sussex. There were debuts for Issa Diop, Marlon Fossey and Luke Harris, along with first starts for Kevin Mbabu and Shane Duffy.

The game began at an electric tempo, with Fulham particularly getting plenty of joy down the right flank, but the first effort of the game came on the other side when Joe Bryan ghosted beyond his man in the box and fired over.

That awakened something in the hosts who went straight up the other end and planted a cross on Nichols’ head, but he was denied by Marek Rodák.

The Reds captain did not have to wait long to find the net, though, delivering a smart finish across Rodák that matched the quality of a slick move from his side – to the delight of the capacity home crowd.

Fulham’s response was positive. After Tom Cairney won a free-kick 20 yards out, he sent his set-piece into the wall, and then Harris also saw a first time shot blocked from Fossey’s low cross, following a cute Mbabu backheel.

An uncharacteristically loose pass from Cairney presented Town with another sight of goal in the 44^th minute, but Rodák made himself big to narrow the angle for Balagizi, who shot straight at the Slovakia international.

Silva gave two more Academy boys their debuts for the second half, with forwards Martial Godo and Terry Ablade replacing Harris and Bryan, in an attacking move from the boss.

The Whites did begin the second 45 on the front foot, but another misplaced pass led to Crawley doubling their lead within minutes, as Balagizi made no mistake after being slipped in by Nichols.

The double substitution had seen Jay Stansfield move out to the right wing, and from there he stabbed in a brilliant cross towards Godo, who adjusted his body quickly but saw his acrobatic attempt drop the wrong side of the post.

Tyrese Francois then drilled a strike into a similar spot from 25 yards.

Fulham were still awaiting a first effort on target and so with 10 minutes to go Duffy took matters into his own hands, striding purposefully forward and lashing one in anger from distance. It was struck well, but again failed to trouble home goalkeeper Corey Addai.

Ashley Nadesan – who had a season ticket at Craven Cottage prior to turning pro – had a chance to add further daylight soon after when he went one-on-one, but his attempt to chip Rodák cleared the bar.

In the second of seven minutes added on – courtesy of some understandable game management from Town – Stansfield did call Addai into action with a snapshot that needed pushing behind, with Duffy heading over from the resulting corner.

Fulham weren’t giving up, and Ablade was so unfortunate not to claim a debut goal when his volley from Mbabu’s pinpoint cross thwacked the crossbar, but it just wasn’t going to happen for the Whites on this particular evening, with attentions quickly returning to the Premier League with a trip to Arsenal on Saturday.