Fulham 0 Burnley 3 – Woeful Whites exit FA Cup
Fulham’s focus can now solely be on Premier League survival after crashing out of the FA Cup on Sunday afternoon.
Jay Rodriguez scored in either half as Burnley deservedly progressed to the fifth round of the competition where they will face either Bournemouth or Crawley Town.
Kevin Long also netted to cap off a thoroughly miserable afternoon for the Whites.
Fulham were poor defensively and could have no complaints about the outcome.
Whites boss Scott Parker made wholesale changes for the tie and his side struggled on a heavy Craven Cottage playing surface. Brighton are up next on Wednesday night and none of his fringe players staked any kind of claim for a starting spot on the South Coast.
Not only did their passing game fail to click in the opening 45 minutes, they also looked extremely shaky defensively.
Burnley could easily have been ahead before Rodriguez did head home Jack Cork’s cross from the right wing.
Michael Hector, a shadow of the composed centre-back who initially arrived from Chelsea, looked extremely uncomfortable in that first period. Only Bobby Decordova-Reid offered any kind of attacking outlet in that first period.
Clarets keeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell was finally called into serious action five minutes after the restart, diving to his right to deny Joe Bryan and then quickly following up to block Aleksandar Mitrovic’s follow up.
But that promising start did not last. Despite Fulham having more of the ball in the final third they struggled to make it count.
And yet again more hapless defending led to Burnley’s second. Tim Ream had already got lucky once when he lost possession to Matej Vydra but the American then gifted the visitors the ball with some woeful distribution – Hector bumped Vydra over to concede a penalty. Rodriguez sent his spot-kick straight down the middle.
Substitute Ruben Loftus-Cheek sent Aboubakar Kamara through on the left of the box in the 78th minute with Peacock-Farrell taking some of the sting out of his effort with James Tarkowski clearing before the ball crossed the goal-line.
Long made it 3-0 on 81 minutes as Marek Rodak dealt unconvincingly with a cross – Rodriguez provided a deft chestdown for a close-range conversion.
PICTURES: KEITH GILLARD
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