Four goals in sixteen second half minutes saw Wolverhampton Wanderers waltz into the third round of the Coca Cola Cup after Graham Taylor’s men ruthlessly exploited some abject Fulham defending at Craven Cottage.
Taking a 2-0 lead from an underwhelming first leg to the historic home of the Third Division outfit, Wolves were fortunate to be leading through Tony Daley’s first half strike – and doing just about enough to avoid a potential banana skin until they ran riot in the final twenty minutes of this fixture. Taylor’s switch to a three-man central defence caused some awkwardness early on with Gary Brazil shot wide after racing through on goal following a misunderstanding between Dean Richards and Eric Young.
Wolves created little in the first half hour of an edgy contest before Daley latched onto a flick on from Don Goodman and spread play to Mark Rankine out on the right flank. Daley continued his run and diverted the cross into Tony Lange’s net via the far post. The game was short on further incident until twenty minutes from time. Simon Morgan whistled a volley inches wide of the Wolves goal, before a blunder from Terry Angus allowed Mark Williams to surge through the centre of the field, beating two white shirts, and firing home after playing a one-two with Marc Atkins.
Atkins then scored his first goal in a Wolves shirt with a delicious drive from Darren Ferguson’s corner. Fulham substitute Nick Cusack grabbed a great consolation for the Cottagers with an accurate shot into the far corner, but Goodman scored twice in sixty seconds to give under-pressure Taylor a resounding victory. The forward was in the right place at the right time to follow-up after Lange had pushed out a shot from Andy Thompson and then lashed a lovely finish past the former Wolves goalkeeper after he had beaten Robbie Herrera far too easily.
FULHAM: Lange, Finnigan, Herrera, Mison (Jupp 45), Angus, Blake, Thomas, Morgan, Brazil, Conroy (Cusack 57), Bolt. Subs (not used): Harrison.
BOOKED: Morgan, Finnigan, Angus.
GOAL: Cusack (82).
WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS: Stowell, Rankine, Thompson, Atkins, Young, Richards, Daley, Goodman, Venus, Ferguson, Williams. Subs (not used): Wright, Jones, Cowans.
BOOKED: Daley.
GOALS: Daley (27), Williams (70), Atkins (78), Goodman (85, 86).
REFEREE: Robert Harris (Oxford)
ATTENDANCE: 6,625.
