Andy Munro watches Blues go out of the Carabao Cup to Fulham
This would have been a nice game to win but wasn’t important in the grand scheme of things.
Stats show that we had twice as many shots,and 58 per cent possession but unfortunately Fulham had Jay Stansfield. However, this wasn’t the only reason for the loss, not helped by conceding a highly debatable penalty, awarded by a referee who at times seemed like Fulham’s twelfth man. Add to this hitting the bar and having a shot cleared off the line
On the downside, the defence were caught absolutely cold by Stansfield springing a rather poor attempt at an offside trap. His finish was classy as was his respect to the Blues fans, who last season idolised him, by not celebrating.
On the subject of the defence, Cochrane was excellent whilst on the other flank Laird was again lively but again let down by poor decision making in the opposition third.
The two centre backs were decent but neither are the quickest men out of the blocks, which is something to be born in mind.
In midfield, both Paul and Leonard controlled it impressively for much of the game and outside Hansen got himself in good positions without delivering.
Further forward, Alfie May was a continual thorn in Fulham’s side before being taken off and Anderson put in another impressive display and was unlucky not to net.
As regards the subs, Yokoyama looked a quality acquisition when he came on and several times mesmerised the opposition defence.
In essence, there was plenty to like despite the result, and it was watched by a decent crowd with a paltry turnout from Fulham fans, who could have gone home in a taxi.
