Gary Brazil brilliantly backheels the first goal of his first Fulham hat-trick in the 6-2 thrashing of Maidstone United
Gary Brazil hit his first Fulham hat-trick as the Whites thrashed Maidstone United 6-2 in their opening Auto Windscreens Shield fixture at Watling Street this evening.
Kelly Haag scored twice in the last two minutes after replacing for Brazil for the final quarter of an hour, whilst Andrew Cole set up five of Fulham’s half dozen goals. Brazil opened the scoring with a brilliant backheel from Cole’s clever cutback from the left wing on twelve minutes, but the visitors had barely finished celebrating when they allowed Maidstone back into it. United were gifted the opportunity to draw level as striker Mark Gall gleefully seized upon a terrible back pass from Mark Newson to make it 1-1.
It looked as if the teams would go into half time level until Cole conjured up another dangerous ball, this time from the right flank, with his pinpoint cross emphatically headed home by Martin Pike. Fulham looked to be coasting to victory two minutes after the break when Newson atoned for his earlier error with a wonderful raking ball that put Brazil in plenty of space and the former Newcastle United forward produced a peach of a finish, superbly lobbing stranded home goalkeeper Ian Hesford from distance.
Maidstone did make things interesting briefly when Adrian Owens headed a second – but that goal only served to spark the visitors back into life. Straight from the restart, Cole surged past three Maidstone defenders on an incredible individual run and then unselfishly squared for Brazil to complete his hat-trick. Haag then bagged a brace as the home defence tired, collecting a Cole pass and angling a powerful shot across Hesford before rounding off the scoring with a simple finish from another Cole assist to seal Fulham’s biggest away win since the Whites beat Halifax Town 8-0 in 1969.
MAIDSTONE UNITED: Hesford; Sandeman (Owers 59), Thompson (Painter 45), Oxbrow, Nethercott; Haylock, Stebbing, Osborne, Henry; Gall, Richards.
GOALS: Gall (14), Owers (65).
FULHAM: Stannard; Cobb, Pike, Newson, G. Thomas, M. Kelly, Onwere, Morgan (Nebbeling 67), Scott, Brazil (Haag 74), Cole.
BOOKED: Cole.
GOALS: Brazil (12, 47, 66), Pike (44), Haag (87, 90).
ATTENDANCE: 937.
