Fulham 3 Burnley 0

Fulham eased to a comfortable 3-0 win over Burnley, at Craven Cottage, last night with a performance that made a mockery of their recent poor run of form.

For the fixture Roy Hodgson was able to welcome back Simon Davies, Dickson Etuhu and Bobby Zamora to his starting eleven but such illustrious names as Pantsil, Dempsey, Johnson, Konchesky and Gera were missing.

With just over 23,000 inside Craven Cottage it was Fulham that got off to the better start with Damien Duff seeing a shot flash wide and Danny Murphy having a shot blocked. Burnley, on the back of a very poor run of away form that hasn`t seen them win away from home this season, saw a Bikey shot flash wide.

With twenty-three minutes on the clock, Fulham took the lead with a well crafted goal. On loan new-boy Nicky Shorey produced a decent cross that David Elm did well to head down into the path of Danny Murphy. The skipper calmly controlled it on his chest before firing home.

From that moment Fulham never looked back.

Booby Zamora provided a good pass for Dickson Etuhu and Jensen was forced to parry away his shot before the Burnley defence was breached for a second time. With thirty one minute completed Bobby Zamora appeared to beat the offside trap, although the Burnley manager was later to suggest otherwise, his shot was half saved by Jensen and David Elm was on hand to score his first Premier League goal for the club.

Just before half time Burnley almost reduced the arrears, from a free kick Mears crashed a wonderful free kick against the angle of the post and the cross bar.

The second half produced much of the same fare, although with a two goal lead there wasn`t that same degree of urgency about Fulham`s play. Bobby Zamora, having a fine game, saw a shot saved by Jensen before with only nine minutes of the second half played, the lead was stretched t three goals.

Fulham won a free kick and from it Bobby Zamora simply placed the ball, from twenty yards, past a slightly bemused Jensen. It really was game set and match now and Roy Hodgson was afforded the rare luxury of being able to rotate his eleven introducing Jonathan Greening (62 minutes), Stefano Okaka (71 minutes) and Bjorn Helge Riise (77 minutes),

All in all a good warm up for the magic of the FA Cup when Notts County visit us for a fifth round tie.

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