Cardiff City 1, Fulham 2
Thousands of Bluebirds fans stayed away and they must be delighted with their decision.
Only 5,199 spectators were at Cardiff City Stadium, including a healthy contingent who had travelled from London to support Fulham.
Neil Warnock’s team served up an awful performance and went out of the competition with scarcely a whimper.
The record low for a Cardiff match at their own stadium is 4,194, also for an FA Cup tie, and the 11.30am kick-off on a Sunday didn’t help when it came to attracting fans.
Fulham’s flowing passing style was good to watch, but Cardiff seemed content to sit back and admire their visitors rather than hit back with fight and aggression.
Perhaps they feel the cup is a distraction to their number one focus of climbing the Championship table. If that is the case the issue is well and truly solved.
Greg Halford was selected for his Bluebirds debut, while Jazz Richards and Emyr Huws made their first starts under Neil Warnock.
City made five changes to their starting line-up in total, while teenage striker Mark Harris was among the substitutes.
It looked certain to be a hard fought tie between Championship rivals, but Cardiff were a poor second best for well over an hour.
Even an eighth minute goal by Anthony Pilkington, thanks mainly to a huge deflection, failed to lift the home team.
Warnock teams have always been renowned for their intensity, aggression and competitive spirit, but City looked strangely overawed as they stood off and allowed their visitors far too much time and space.
Fuham passed with fluency and style, while the pace of Ryan Fredericks on the right and his opposite winger 16-year-old Ryan Sessegnon ran home defenders ragged.
Left-back Joe Bennett simply could not cope with former Spurs trainee Fredericks, who has the speed to go past defenders and enough composure to pick out team-mates.
To be fair to Bennett he he needed help from midfield players and was let down, particularly by Joe Ralls before Fulham’s equaliser. Johannsen ran away from Ralls, met Fredericks’ low cross around 20 years out and finished with a crisp shot into the roof of the net.
It was clear changes were needed to the make-up of Cardiff’s team and Warnock sent on Mark Harris and Stuart O’Keefe.
Lambert and Halford were the players to go off and Warnock reshuffled his team to try and play far more of a passing game.
The young Harris was sent on to lead the line, supported by Pilkington, with O’Keefe adding a touch of steel through midfield.
City badly needed to shake Fulham out of their comfortable, composed passing style by restricting space and time on the ball. They failed to do that.
Pilkington fired Cardiff ahead from a free-kick just outside the penalty area with eight minutes gone. He tried to while the ball over Fulham’s wall and into his left hand side of goal.
That didn’t work out by Cardiff were delighted as the ball struck Brazilian Lucas Piazon, who turned his back and looked back in horror as the ball hit him on the head and looped into the other side of goal as ‘keeper Marcus Bettinelli went the other way.
Johannsen’s equaliser came after 14 minutes when Tom Cairney and Sone Aluko combined to send Fredericks running down the right. He went past Bennett and cut the ball back for Johanssen to fire into the roof of the net.
Fulham went ahead on 33 minutes when Fredericks set off again and pulled a low cross back for Cairney to strike. His shot crashed against the underside of City’s bar and flew down for Sessegnon to tap home from almost on the line.
It looked as though the teenage Sessegnon might have been offside, but referee Andy Woolmer awarded the goal.
Once they were ahead Fulham scarcely extended themselves, passing and running with such confidence against a City team who did little to throw them off their stride.
Cardiff did finish with a flourish, suddenly finding the energy and character to fight for their FA Cup lives, but it was too little too late. When they were awarded free-kicks the delivery was dreadful and Fulham were able to defend easily.
Warnock gave a number of players their chance to shine and not one of them built a case to be selected for next Saturday’s Championship magic at Bristol City. New signing Halford struggled to make any sort of impact.
Where was the desire and hunger Cardiff fans wanted to see? The players were lacklustre and simply lacked that FA Cup passion they needed to throw Fulham off their game.
The visitors enjoyed 72 per cent of possession and outshot their hosts 17-1. Cardiff slumped out of the FA Cup with scarcely a whimper.
The final scoreline could easily have been far harsher than 2-1.
Cardiff City: Murphy, Richards, Morrison (capt), Bamba, Bennett, Halford (M Harris 67), Ralls, Huws, Pilkington, K Harris (Noone 79), Lambert (O’Keefe 67). Subs not used: Wilson (gk), Peltier, Connolly, Zohore.
Fulham: Bettinelli, Odoi, McDonald, Cairney (capt), Ream, Johannsen (Adeniran 81), Piazon, Sone, Aluko (Humphreys 85), Fredericks, Sessegnon (Malone 90). Subs not used: Sutton, Malone, Edu, Jozabed, Humphreys, Smith.
Referee: Andy Woolmer.
