Source: Telegraph
Fulham deny Kettering a replay at the death
The temporary terracing erected behind one of the goals creaked with anticipation of a mammoth giant-killing while the main stand was packed to its rusting beams and bursting with atmosphere. [LNB]Nowhere was the magic of the cup epitomised more gloriously on Saturday than at the home of the lowest-ranked team left in the competition as Kettering Town came within three minutes of an historic replay against opponents four divisions higher. [LNB]Ninety-three places separated the Blue Square Premiership side from Roy Hodgson's Fulham but in the match programme Poppies manager Mark Cooper, son of former England full-back Terry Cooper, spoke of how the cup offered the minnows a chance to dream. [LNB]And how close that dream came to turning into reality in the most gripping, emotionally draining of cup-ties. Apart from the opening 15 minutes, when Fulham threatened to boss the game, and two last-gasp goals that broke the hearts of the non-leaguers, it was hard to tell who were the highly paid Goliaths and who the non-league Davids. [LNB]Simon Davies got Fulham, who fielded eight of their usual starting line-up, off to a sublime start with a sumptuous volley and Kettering's heads could easily have gone down there and then. Instead they were level - and deservedly so - by halftime as Craig Westcarr's freekick took a deflection off the Fulham wall and beat Mark Schwarzer at his near post. [LNB]The crowd, who included a suited Ron Atkinson - supporting the club that launched his managerial career - roared Kettering off and they burst out of the traps for the second period as if their lives depended it, fuelled by adrenaline as they rattled Fulham in the setting sun. [LNB]Three times in quick succession they came within a whisker of taking the lead. Zoltan Gera cleared a corner off the line, Brede Hangeland was inches away from turning another effort into his own net and stand-in skipper John Dempster somehow put a free header over the bar from six yards out. [LNB]At the other end, former Arsenal keeper Lee Harper brilliantly turned away a Paul Konchesky rocket but the Cottagers had yet another let-off as Westcarr's toe-poke narrowly missed the target. A worried Hodgson sent on Danny Murphy and Bobby Zamora, the former immediately setting up a golden chance for the latter who skewed his header wide. [LNB]Kettering, though, continued to look the more threatening side. Yet just as they edged towards possibly becoming the first non-league outfit for 20 years to knock out top-flight opposition, they were rocked back as Murphy's speculative shot ricocheted off the luckless Exodus Geohagon for the most unfortunate of own goals. [LNB]Defeat then would have been cruel. Instead, as the clock ticked towards 82 minutes, Hangeland tucked back Westcarr and referee Mike Riley had no hestitation in pointing to the spot. The crowd held its collective breath as Westcarr - once the youngest player on Nottingham Forest's books - held his nerve, driving the penalty hard and true into the corner beyond a diving Schwarzer. [LNB]A replay now seemed on the cards for a club who have never been beyond the fourth round. But their hopes were shattered in the dying moments as they lost concentration for the first time in the match, Andy Johnson tapping in for 3-2 after hesitation by Harper. The most undeserving of scorelines was then completed by a quality Zamora strike. [LNB]"It's sickening because I thought we at least deserved a replay," said Cooper. "We were desperate to win the game and missed numerous chances. The players are gutted but I have to be proud of them. It was an unbelievable performance and it will be a long time before any non-league side does that against Premier League opponents." [LNB]Hodgson said he had prepared his team the best he could. "The FA cup can be nerve-wracking and all credit to Kettering," he said. "To some extent even a replay would have been a semi-defeat in our minds. At 2-2 we were fearing the worst and we had to dig deep. Had we not, we could have seen an upset." [LNB]Kettering's forward-looking chairman, Imraan Ladek, could not hide his disappointment at the TV companies deciding not to screen the game live. Kettering even offered to waive their fee, but to no avail. "The whole footballing world wanted this game on TV - it was about tradition and history but for some reason they said no," he said. "They must be overjoyed that we are not through to at least a replay."[LNB]Match details[LNB]Kettering Town: Harper, Eaden, Geohaghan, Dempster, Jaszczun (Potter 71), Bennett, Boucaud, Solkhon, Richard Graham (Marna 89), Westcarr, Seddon (Beardsley 73)Subs: Wrack, GalbraithBooked: Richard Graham, Dempster, WestcarrGoals: Westcarr 36, 83 penFulham: Schwarzer, Stoor, Hangeland, Hughes, Konchesky, Davies, Andreasen, Etuhu (Murphy 69), Gera (Zamora 69), Johnson, DempseySubs: Zuberbuhler, Pantsil, Nevland, Kallio, BairdBooked: HangelandGoals: Davies 12, Murphy 77, Johnson 88, Zamora 89Referee: Mike Riley (Yorkshire). [LNB]
