Can we do no wrong?
Even our far from best eleven were good enough to beat West Ham United even if the visitors did have a slightly larger share of the possession and more shots on target than us.
Rested for the Premier League were a host of players who would normally be considered starters – Brede Hangland, Aaron Hughes, Damien Duff, Danny Murphy, Dickson Etuhu and the injured Bobby Zamora.
The opening exchanges were fairly drab with Fulham perhaps shading the possession statistics although it was to be West Ham who carved out the first real opportunity when Mark Noble forced Mark Schwarzer into pushing his shot behind the post.
Clint Dempsey then went close to opening the scoring for Fulham but his shot, from just outside the box clipped the top of the crossbar and flew over. As West Ham countered, Da Costa forced an easy save out of Schwarzer and with half time approaching everyone thought the game would be bereft of a first half goal.
That was until Clint Dempsey, on the stroke of half time, received a pass from Simon Davies and shot past Robert Green at his near post. On the balance of play it was probably a deserved lead.
Fulham doubled their lead just before the hour mark when Chris Baird thought he`d notched his first Fulham goal since 2007. Unfortunately, his shot wasn`t heading towards the goal until the luckless Carlton Cole deflected it past a bewildered Green.
But Cole didn`t have to wait long to make partial amends, reducing the arrears three minutes later steering home a header from a Mark Noble free kick. Any intentions West Ham had of getting back on level terms though were rocked in the 80th minute when Stefano Okaka had the easiest of chances to slide home a third after good work from Erik Nevland had seen the Norwegian rob Spector and supply the perfect ball in.
West Ham did though give us a few nervy moments, deep into injury time after Guillermo Franco finished off a move with a goal after some bright work from Scott Parker.
Two games to go, Stoke and Arsenal, before we head off to Hamburg!
Bring it on!
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