A rarity, a Fulham away win, our first this season and a win that would have netted any punters willing to stake a few bob on that result a fortune with that score-line.
After the resounding 3-0 win over Bolton Wanderers, Mark Hughes slightly shuffled his starting eleven for the trip to Sunderland. Philippe Senderos came in for his first Fulham appearance, in place of Brede Hangeland, Gael Kakuta and Bobby Zamora came in up front in place of Moussa Dembele and Clint Dempsey.
Fulham didn`t start the game well, in fact they looked a little lacklustre and sluggish with Sunderland controlling matters without testing Mark Schwarzer. But, just past the half way mark in the half, Fulham created a decent chance. A cross from Simon Davies found Eidur Gudjohnsem but his effort, on the turn, flew well over the crossbar.
Sunderland could have gone ahead when a clearance form Senderos was charged down by Fulham old-boy, Steed Malbranque but the Frenchman could only put effort, from eighteen yards, wide.
With thirty-three minutes played, Fulham took the lead with a first goal in English football from Gael Kakuta. Bobby Zamora played the ball in and Kakuta, despite looking as if he wasn`t going to score, beat a couple of defenders before firing under the keeper from some eight yards out.
As half time approached, Sunderland wasted a good chance to go level when Lee Cattermole and Stephane Sessegnon exchanged passes only for the former to shoot, rather meekly, straight at Schwarzer.
With hopes of a rare away win high, Fulham were not to let us down in the second half. Sunderland may have had the first decent chance when Malbranque put through Sessegnon in a one on one situation he wasted, but Fulham were to double their lead with sixty-one minutes on the clock.
Sidwell had space galore down the left and when he fed Simon Davies the ex-Welsh international made no mistake with his shot. Twelve minutes later the game was well out of the reach of the home side when Davies got his second goal of the game.
This one though wasn`t quite as elegant as his first. Zamora fed a square ball to Davies and the Welshman bundled the ball home. 3-0 away from home, this is dreamland!
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