ASTON VILLA 1
IT WAS a family affair at Craven Cottage as Aston Villa were sent tumbling out of the cup.
Harry Arter had only been on the pitch for 90 seconds, sent on by his brother-in-law and manager Scott Parker, when his glorious longrange strike crushed the Premier League side’s hopes.
The Midlands club must be sick of the sight of the Cottagers.
They lost in the Championship play-off final to Fulham in 2018 at Wembley – and now their FA Cup hopes have disappeared after an insipid display.
In truth, Villa manager Dean Smith had his eye on other matters as he made nine changes. Namely survival, with his team just one point above the drop zone, and a Carabao Cup semi-final against Leicester looming on Wednesday.
But if Smith thought his second string was good enough to take care of promotion hopefuls
Fulham, who passed Villa on the way out of the top flight in the summer – he was wrong.
Parker’s lively, neat footballing side thoroughly deserved this win.
And Arter, 30, won’t care at all – in his first game back after three months out with a calf problem he celebrated his first
FULHAM ASTON VILLA 5 ........ Shots on Target ......... 3 6 ........ Shots off Target ......... 5 3 ................ Corners ................. 3 9 .................. Fouls .................... 9 3 ............... Offsides ................. 4 83.3 . Passing Success .... 81.0 556 ...... Total Passes ........ 422 56.7 ........ Possession ........ 43.3 53.4.. Territorial Adv%...46.6