Fulham under 18s hit Crystal Palace for six this lunchtime as they extended their unbeaten run to six matches with a convincing victory in Beckenham.
Luca Picotto and Farhaan Ali Wahid gave the young Whites a comfortable lead with first half strikes before Bashil Lubega, Macaulay Zepa, Jayden Quashie and Ruban Khan completed a London derby rout in a devastating second period.
Zepa signalled his threat early on when home goalkeeper Billy Eastwood was forced into a fine fingertip save after the winger darted dangerously in from the right flank. Aidan Edans went agonisingly close from the ensuing corner – chesting a devilish delivery from Quashie just wide.
Zepa played a key part as Ali Melloul’s eventually broke the deadlock, dribbling all the way to the byline before providing the perfect cross for Picotto to prod home from barely a yard out. Palace were almost handed an immediate leveller when Fulham goalkeeper Marco Underwood misplaced his pass out from the back straight to Matteo Dashi but the attacking midfielder somehow fired over an unattended goal.
AlI Wahid dutifully punished Palace’s playmaker by scoring his third goal in as many academy appearances when he found the far corner with a measured finish after being played in by skipper Quashie. The Whites kept up the momentum after the interval with Lubega rewarded for another outstanding afternoon of centre forward play when he tucked calmly past Eastwood after being sent clear of a horribly square home defence by a perceptive Seth Ridgeon ball. Eastwood spread himself to deny Evans as Fulham began to run riot.
Frenchman Zepa got a deserved goal midway through the second half as he again drifted off his wing and left a pair of Palace defenders for dead before bending a fine finish into the net. Dashi’s miserable afternoon ended early after he was shown a second yellow card and that gave the visitors the opportunity to make their victory even more emphatic. Ali Wahid was brought down in the box after a fine individual run and Quashie calmly converted the spot kick before substitute Khan stroked home an outstanding left-footed finish in added time having been teed up by Harvey Platel.
CRYSTAL PALACE UNDER 18s (4-2-3-1): Eastwood; King, Benamar (Muwana 80), Somade, Walker-Smith; Harper (Kyremeh 56), Williams (Adams-Collman 80); Judd, Derry, Dashi; Casey (Henry 66). Subs (not used): Hill.
BOOKED: Dashi.
SENT OFF: Dashi.
FULHAM UNDER 18s (4-2-3-1): Underwood; Nsasi, Picotto, Cooke, Walkers; Quashie, Ridgeon (White 78); Zepa (Platel 82), Ali Wahid, Evans (Khan 86); Lubega.
BOOKED: Ridgeon, Ali Wahid, Zepa.
GOALS: Picotto (24), Ali Wahid (39), Lubega (50), Zepa (67), Quashie (pen 76), Khan (90+1).
REFEREE: Colman O’Meara.
