In a pulsating cup tie at Craven Cottage, Fulham had to twice come from behind to force a replay against gallant Bristol Rovers.
In a round whereby several Premier League clubs have fallen by the wayside at the third round stage, Roy Hodgson may not be too pleased about the problem a replay throws up but will be mightily relieved that he`s still in the FA Cup.
Sadly, this epic cup tie was only watched by 13,634 which is just over a half full Craven Cottage.
Hodgson went into the tie praising the merits of the FA Cup and selected what is, probably, his strongest side available to him at the moment.
Nevertheless, it was the visitors that were to strike first and it didn`t take long with Coles netting in the second minute. Obviously, the visitors were buoyed by the early goal whilst the home side simply feared the worse.
Thankfully a strike from David Healy, on thirty nine minutes got us back on level terms and we hoped that we`d go up a couple of gears and put the visitors to the sword in the second half.
However, as is often the case in the FA Cup, things don`t go according to the script and on sixty-four minutes Hinton put the ‘Pirates` ahead again. This time Fulham only took eight minutes to get back on level terms when Danny Murphy equalised.
Whilst I may have cheered a late winner for us, you cannot help but admire Rovers for their endeavour and there is no doubt the trip to the West County, for the replay, is a daunting prospect for us.
On the bright side, at least we`re still in the draw tomorrow!
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