Hornets’ sting drawn by Fulham

Fulham 2 Watford 0

Victories over Portsmouth and Southampton in the Carling Cup have seen Watford capture plenty of headlines but they were unable to produce another of their giant-killing acts at Craven Cottage.

The Championship club - who had performed heroics when the sides met at Vicarage Road 12 days ago - failed to create a clear goalscoring opportunity all match and were comprehensively outclassed by the Cottagers.

The visitors found the left flank a profitable channel to attack thanks to Moritz Volz’s shaky start but the full-back soon regained his confidence after firing Fulham into a 13th minute lead. Papa Bouba Diop released Volz who beat Gavin Mahon and Jermaine Darlington with a mazy run into the area before drilling the ball beyond the reach of Chamberlain into the bottom left corner.

In reply, Watford could only muster an optimistic long-range effort with Danny Webber forcing Edwin van der Sar to make an easy save once Fulham’s defence had offered him some space.

Tomasz Radzinski went close after being let down by his first touch while a well-struck shot from Sylvain Legwinski bounced just wide of the right post with Chamberlain - who looked slow to react - beaten.

Fulham took their foot off the pedal for the next 15 minutes as Watford were allowed to attack with more conviction but they were toothless when they reached the danger area and the home side coped easily.

Lee Clark was replaced by Mark Pembridge in the 63rd minute, a switch which saw the captain’s armband handed to strike partner Andy Cole - who began his leadership duties by setting up Fulham’s second goal for Radzinski.

He slipped a deadly pass just beyond the reach of James Chambers to the Canadian, who cut inside the defender and fended off Demerit before planting the ball home.

FULHAM: Van der Sar, Volz, Knight, Rehman, Bocanegra, Radzinski, Diop, Clark, Legwinski, Boa Morte, Cole.

WATFORD: Chamberlain, Chambers, Demerit, Cox, Darlington, Devlin, Mahon, Blizzard, Bouazza, Webber, Helguson.

Referee: A D’Urso.