Fulham   0   Tottenham Hotspur    0      (Half-time score : 0-0)

  1  Schwarzer

  6  Baird
  5  Hangeland
18  Hughes (c)
  7  Shorey

16  Duff
29  Davies  (35  Elm  73)
20  Etuhu      
27  Greening

25  Zamora
11  Gera

Unused subs: 
19  Zuberbuhler
26  Smalling
  2  Kelly
  3  Konchesky
17  Riise
  9  Okaka

  1  Gomes

22  Corluka
19  Bassong
20  Dawson  (c)
32  Assou-Ekotto

  3  Bale
14  Modric
12  Palacios
21  Kranjcar

15  Crouch
  9  Pavlyuchenko   (18  Defoe  81)

Unused subs: 
27  Alnwick
30  Dervite
37  Townsend
29  Livermore
25  Rose
17  Gudjohnsen

None

     
Etuhu (foul) 89

While Fulham played the tie as is they were the away team (which doesn't bode well for the replay), when they did attack, it left the one man - Zamora - stranded up front on his own with only Gera joining from a deep "in the hole" position.  The former Spurs striker is supposed to have developed into an England candidate, but on this showing, his touch is not good enough and while Bassong is a competent centre-half, against world class defenders, Zamora will not survive very long.  Peter Crouch was showing a bit more up front, but was penalised often by referee Clattenburg, who had a pretty good game otherwise.  Crouch's size does not help him with officials and he showed better control with his feet, as the headers on were not read by Pavlyuchenko.

Tottenham rarely looked like scoring and in the periods when they had a greater percentage of possession, the final ball was lacking.  Some of this was due to the massed ranks of white shirts placed between them and the goal and some because the final ball was poor.  Bale put a couple of good crosses in, but they lacked their usual danger.  From the other flank, Corluka and Kranjcar regularly failed to find a Spurs head.  Corners and free-kicks came to little and even Luka Modric had difficulty picking his way through the organised Fulham back line.

The little Croatian did have a chance when he ran onto a return pass from Kranjcar in the fourth minute, but he could only flick at the ball as a challenge came in and it went well wide.  Niko was the first to have a decent crack at goal for Spurs and that was in the 27th minute, as the ball was worked across the box to him and he swapped feet to hit a shot that Schwarzer took high up at his left hand post.   Ten minutes earlier, Fulham had their first chance, as Charlie's clearance dropped to Zamora on the left corner of the box and he entered the area to hit a shot low to Gomes' right hand post, but the Brazilian got down to it to hold the effort safely. 

On the half hour Tottenham's best chance arrived from a cross by Kranjcar, finding the head of Peter Crouch and his header down was pushed aside by Schwarzer on the dive.  A Bassong header from Niko's corner brushed the top of the netting, when perhaps he should have done better.  Five minutes on and Benoit Assou-Ekotto played a ball beyond the far post form the left to find Crouch, who decided to smash a volley at goal rather than play the ball back across goal and his shot went behind the goal from a narrow angle.

Just before the break Gareth Bale got down the left and played a dangerous ball into the near post, where Hangleand intercepted and got the ball away, but the ball could have gone anywhere.

Fulham came out quicker at the start of the second half and when a deep cross by Simon Davies from tight on the goal-line was nodded back into the six yard box by Zamora, Gera was there to head at goal but Gomes dive up to his left to palm the ball away.  A better placed header might have given the Spurs keeper more of a problem, as might the header from the resulting corner, when Etuhu put his effort straight at Heurelho.

This sparked a response form Tottenham and they kept the home side pressed back in their own defensive third for quite a while.  But not a lot came of it.  A hopeful shout for a penalty when Hangeland laid his arm on Crouch's shoulder and the ball hit it and a cleared corner was volleyed back with great power by Dawson, but not too much accuracy, as it flew about three yards wide. 

On the hour, Assou-Ekotto stood off Duff when the ball fell to him from Zamora's knock down, leaving the Irishman a chance to shoot, but he hit the ball wide of the goal from ten yards out.  Three minutes later, the same player managed to get a shot off when the ball seemed stuck under his feet, but Gomes was equal to it with another diving catch, which was a fairly routine stop.  Crouch flicked on a Bale long-throw and  it dropped for Pav on the edge of the six yard box, but not quickly enough and his overhead kick could not be kept down, clearing Schwarzer's goal.  Kranjcar had a crack that went across the goal and Duff did the same at the other end.

The entry of Defoe for Pavlyuchenko made little difference, as the white shirts swarmed around him every time he got the ball.  And towards the end of the game, Fulham looked the most likely to score, with Zamora shooting across the face of goal when put through on the right and a long free-kick from Chris Baird being nodded into the middle of the goal by the former Spurs man, only for Corluka to slice clear ... about two feet wide to the right of the Tottenham goal.

In the end, a draw seemed a fair result, with the game well reffed by Clattenburg, who let play continue and let some fair, but strong challenges go, where some refs might have blown up.  It made it a better game for the flow being allowed to continue and while it lacked the excitement of some of the cup games this season, it provides Spurs with an opportunity to face the Cottagers on our own turf and both teams go into the hat for the semi-final draw tomorrow afternoon.

burton bradshaw