Daniel Stratford scored the winner as Fulham’s reserves beat Luton Town in a behind-closed-doors friendly at Motspur Park this afternoon. The home eleven, made up of mostly academy graduates, edged past a hard-working Luton side in their first outing of pre-season.
Stratford found the net from a short corner in the early in second off with his strike from the edge of the area taking a slight deflection on its way into the bottom corner.
Fulham reserve team manager Paul Nevin told the club’s official website:
“Luton brought down their first team which was a good experience for us because we had quite a lot of Academy players on the pitch. The only professionals on the pitch were Calum Willock, Loui Fazakerley, Stuart Noble, and the two goalkeepers Ross Flitney and Martin Herrera.
“It was a very promising result. You always take it easy at this time of the season – the priorities are to make sure that you get through the game and move the ball as quickly as you can. A few players were rusty and a few late challenges went in but I thought we did everything in a sensible manner. The temperature was in the nineties so you obviously want to ball to be doing most of the work. I think we dominated in the first-half and played very well considering it was our first game back in.
“They made some changes and brought on some younger players in the second-half, as did we. The heat made the second period a little bit scrappy but we perked up after we got the goal.”
FULHAM (4-3-3): Herrera; Rosenior, Milsom, Fontaine, Watkins; T. Davis, Fazakerley, Pratley; Noble, Willock, Doherty. Subs: McDermott, Flitney, Lawless, Nowacki, Stratford, Collins.
