Neil Warnock enjoyed the perfect birthday as his promotion-chasing Notts County eased past Fulham to move up to fourth place in the Third Division table.
County’s sixth home win in seven games was centred around a first-minute strike from talented teenager Tommy Johnson who intercepted a sloppy back pass from Fulham midfielder Ronnie Mauge and slipped a smart finish past a stranded Jim Stannard. This strike, coming off 26 seconds, was a couple of seconds quicker than the goal with which Charlie Palmer won the Leyland Daf Cup tie at Craven Cottage in midweek.
More dozy defending cost Fulham in the second half. Jeff Eckhardt had plenty of time to pick his spot to clear his lines on the edge of his box nine minutes after the restart but the defender’s clearance was charged down by Phil Robinson, who raced onto the loose ball and doubled County’s lead with a low shot past Stannard.
Fulham gallantly tried to make a game of it after it after those unforced errors with Eckhardt and Steve Milton both seeing efforts scrambled off the line. Clive Walker forced a fine save out of Steve Cherry at the start of the second half before Milton shot high and wide twice in the closing stages before being hauled down by Craig Short as he closed in on goal. Remarkably, the centre half escaped a caution and Warnock’s side cruised to victory.
NOTTS COUNTY: Cherry; Palmer, Platnaeur, Short, Yates, Robinson, Turner, O’Riordan, Johnson (Draper 85), Lund, Stant (Norris 85).
GOALS: Johnson (1), Robinson (54).
FULHAM: Stannard; Eckhardt, Nebbeling, Marshall, Scott, Donnellan (Langley 81), Skinner (Lewington 72), Mauge, Walker, Milton, Sayer.
BOOKED: Skinner, Nebbeling.
REFEREE: Gurnam Singh (Wolverhampton).
ATTENDANCE: 5,132.
