Relying on penalties to see off lowly opposition from League One will do little for Fulham’s morale. Marco Silva’s side are in a sticky spot, four consecutive defeats dragging them towards the Premier League’s bottom three, and making a meal out of reaching the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup at Wycombe Wanderers’ expense was not exactly the required tonic before this weekend’s vital home game against Wolves.
The positives for Fulham did not extend beyond Josh King scoring his first senior goal. The 18-year-old midfielder cancelled out Cauley Woodrow’s early opener against his old side and the favourites went through 5-4 on penalties. Benjamin Lecomte saved from Ewan Henderson, Fred Onyedinma and Donell McNeilly before Issa Diop’s emphatic spot-kick killed Wycombe off in sudden death.
There was no hint of complacency from Silva, who named a team with plenty of experience and quality, but Fulham’s confidence is fragile and there were only four minutes on the clock when diffident defending allowed a familiar face to catch them out in the fourth minute.
The blow came from Woodrow, who was unable to make much of an impression after joining Fulham for £440,000 in 2011. The 30-year-old forward, on loan at Wycombe from Luton Town, was given time to advance with the ball and he made the visitors pay by rasping a firm drive inside Benjamin Lecomte’s right post from 20 yards.
Fulham were unimpressive but they had chances. Adama Traoré – occasionally effective, often infuriating – crossed the right but Raul Jiménez headed straight at Will Norris. Josh King danced into dangerous positions and Tom Cairney clipped a shot just wide. Timothy Castagne missed a simple chance to equalise.
The frustration grew in the away end. Fulham were sloppy. Traoré was given grief for ducking out of challenges and there were boos after Harrison Reed and Cairney were muscled off the ball in quick succession in midfield. Kevin, the 22-year-old Brazilian, was quiet on the left wing.
Jeered off at half-time, Fulham had to improve. Hope flared at the start of the second half. Kevin won a corner on the left, whipped it towards the near post and celebrated with King when the teenager scored with a flick reminiscent of Gianfranco Zola’s goal for Chelsea against Norwich in 2002.
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Ryan Sessegnon, thrown on at half-time, made a difference from left-back. King, who had a goal wrongly disallowed against Chelsea in August, continued to scheme. Cairney and the increasingly lively Kevin had shots tipped over as Fulham pushed for a second goal.
Yet Wycombe, 17th in League One, refused to roll over. Fulham lacked bite. Jiménez going off was not ideal given that Rodrigo Muniz is already missing in attack. King and Kevin missed late chances but it needed penalties to separate the teams.
