Fulham U21 1-0 Nottingham Forest U21

Chibby Nwoko was the hero as Fulham Under-21s got their PL2 Play-Off campaign off to a winning start, beating Nottingham Forest 1-0 at Motspur Park.

An evening of frustration quickly turned into one of relief as Nwoko scored a screamer in extra-time to set up a Quarter-Final clash at Southampton, although our Young Whites certainly had enough chances to win the game in normal time.

Penalties could have been on the cards as Forest rallied late on, but Alex Borto made a couple of stunning stops to get the job done.

It was a quick start from our Young Whites under the Motspur sun, as Devan Tanton’s first time hit from the edge of the box sailed just wide.

But that early chance wasn’t a sign of things to come – and it took until the half hour mark for either side to register the next shot, but Samuel Amissah’s header from a Jon Esenga corner was well over.

The half ended with a flurry of Fulham chances as Esenga forced George Murray-Jones into his first save with a low piledriver, before Callum Osmand fizzed one past the post from inside the box.

Borto was forced into his first stop shortly after the restart, getting down low to grasp Jimmy Sinclair’s effort.

That sparked our youngsters back into life as Matt Dibley-Dias dragged a shot wide, before Martial Godo failed to pick out a corner when shooting at Murray-Jones’ goal, instead rolling the ball into the goalkeeper’s hands.

Seth Ridgeon then went a matter of inches away from breaking the deadlock, helping on Osmand’s cross while making a darting run into the box, but his effort dropped wide of the far post.

Godo then teased his man down the left flank, cut inside onto his right foot and lashed a shot at Murray-Jones, who could only initially palm the effort away, but he held on at the second attempt with Josh King closing in.

Our Young Whites were dominant by this point, and as King was picked out by a threaded Terrell Works pass, a Forest defender had to run back to clear the midfielder's shot from the line.

We began extra-time in a similar fashion to which we ended the second-half of normal time. Lemar Gordon was teed up by Works with a neat one-two, but Murray-Jones was equal to the effort.

The winning goal arrived just three minutes into extra-time – and it was a stunning strike from Nwoko. Picking the ball up on the edge of the box, his first touch allowed him to rifle a shot with his weaker right-foot towards goal, and it flew into the top corner beyond a helpless Murray-Jones.

Godo should have killed the tie off in stoppage-time of the first-half. Picked out by Works, who made a big impact on this contest, he played in Godo, who could only rifle the ball at Murray-Jones’ legs when one-on-one with the Forest goalkeeper.

In truth, Forest had threatened very little throughout the tie, but Borto was called upon to keep out Frank Djamna, with the American shot-stopper stretching out his leg to deny the forward, who was looking to pick out the bottom corner.

An even bigger chance went begging as Jack Nadin had all the time in the world to pick his spot when meeting a cutback on the penalty spot, but his shot took a vital deflection off Eddy Nsasi, much to the relief of Borto.

Mullins’ men will travel to the south coast to take on Southampton next, details TBC.