John Marshall and Simon Morgan scored the goals as Fulham eased past Gillingham to reach the southern area quarter finals of the Auto Windscreens Shield at Craven Cottage this evening.
Gills manager Damien Richardson was furious after the final whistle – insisting he would be hauling his players back into training in the morning after their meek capitulation – but he was also seething after Fulham’s first goal was allowed to stand despite goalscorer John Marshall and centre forward Gary Brazil were both in offside positions. Richardson said: “The linesman made a major mistake and that changed the course of the game. We had no excuses for their second goal because we defended diabolically on a corner, which we should have cleared at the near post.”
The visitors survived a sticky early period and started to slice upon the home defence at will. Gillingham’s fluidity in the final third posed real problems for the Fulham back four with Steve Lovell firing wide from David Crown’s through ball before Karl Esley shot wide from Mark Dempsey’s cross.
Dempsey then drilled a cross right through the six yard-box which evaded three of his team-mates after a dreadful mix-up between Jim Stannard and Mark Newson. But Gillingham were seething after Marshall, standing three yards offside at a free-kick, tapped in from close range despite the best efforts of young defender Eliot Martin to clear the ball underneath his own crossbar.
Crown had a chance to equalise within five minutes but he couldn’t beat Stannard after latching onto a threaded ball from Dempsey and Fulham finished on the front foot as Udo Onwere forced Harvey Linden to block his low shot with his feet right on the stroke of half time. The Whites resumed with the same mindset after the interval and doubled their lead within three minutes as Morgan hammered high into the net from Martin Pike’s corner.
Gillingham did try and mount a late fightback with Crown nodded a Dempsey ball towards goal that was pushed out by Stannard into the path of Lovell, whose finish ruffled the side netting. The Whites could have a third goal ten minutes from time when Kelly Haag sprinted away from the visiting defence to connect with Eckhardt’s searching pass and clipped the post with a low finish.
FULHAM: Stannard; Newson (Finch 42), Pike, Morgan, G. Thomas, Scott, Onwere (Haag 45), Marshall, Eckhardt, Brazil, Farrell.
GOALS: Marshall (36), Morgan (47).
GILLINGHAM: Lim; O’Shea, B. Clarke, P. Clarke, Martin; O’Connor, Smith, Elsey (Berkley 75), Dempsey (Arnott 75); Lovell, Crown.
REFEREE: Bob Hamer (Brighton).
ATTENDANCE: 1,483.
