Fulham’s reserves hit five for the second successive week as a sensational second half display saw them thrash Newcastle’s second string 5-0 at Motspur Park yesterday afternoon.
A bright start from Ray Lewington’s side, which was a mixture of young academy graduates and a couple of first-team regulars, saw Marcello Trotta have an early goal disallowed for a foul on a Newcastle defender. At the other end, Brandon Miele brought a fine save from Csaba Somogyi and Alex Smith soon had to scramble the ball off the line from a corner.
After lovely interplay between Pajitim Kasami and Kerim Frei fashioned a chance for the younger Swiss international, which Frei fired agonisingly wide, Fulham took the lead in fairly comical circumstances. Newcastle goalkeeper Jak Alnwick’s hit Smith and flew into the net – and the home side immediately drew confidence from their lead. Smith almost doubled his tally just before the break after Bjorn Helge Riise had done brilliantly to hold off his marker and retain position but the Fulham skipper’s chip drifted just wide.
Lewington sent his charges out with instructions to kill the game off early in the second period and they heeded his words. It took only eight minutes for Trotta to second Fulham’s advantage as the Italian played a one-two at pace with Smith and fired into the bottom corner. The teenager, who has been on loan at both Wycombe and Watford this season, then added a second after Frei had tricked his way past two defenders and cut the ball back past a stranded Alnwick from the byline.
Frei then struck the post after being played in by Trotta, but the Whites didn’t need to wait long for a fourth goal. It arrived courtesy off the sliding Kasami who threw himself in to finish an inviting Riise cross with eight minutes to play. Another terrific centre from the Norwegian allowed Trotta to complete his hat-trick with a fine close-range header.
FULHAM RESERVES (4-2-3-1): Somogyi; Grimmer, A. Smith, Burn, Briggs; Gecov, Davies; B.H. Riise, Kasami, Frei; Trotta.
NEWCASTLE RESERVES: Â Alnwick; Nzuzi, Kitchen, Storey, Hoganson (Logan 55), Maddison, Sayer, Richardson, Miele, Moyo (J. Smith 71), Taylor. Subs (not used): Jonathan Mitchell
REFEREE: Derek Eaton
Being a Newcastle fan, have to say I recognize NONE of the players there. I gather it was a bunch of kids were sent out. Seems a bit daft blooding a team of kids all at same time.