Mark Hughes avoids hubris on return to Craven Cottage

Peter Crouch scored the only goal of a tense affair at Craven Cottage which gave Mark Hughes his first win at the venue since his bitter exit from the West London club back in 2011. He’s struggled in pre-season because he had an operation that didn’t go quite as planned, and it set him back somewhat.

Stoke survived a late onslaught from Championship Fulham to reach the fourth round of the League Cup. We got the crowd going and that is important going into the game on Friday.

The 34-year-old underwent groin surgery during the summer before suffering a setback in his rehabilitation and has yet to start in the Barclays Premier League for the Potters this season.

“Stoke always were a good team”.

“It was typical cup game and we gave it a right go”, Christensen said. He will want to play more but he’s got a big role to play.

Without a win in the league so far this season, there was a hardened, no-nonsense feel to Mark Hughes’s side.

Odemwingie drove a shot just wide of the post before exchanging passes with Crouch, who finished well despite close attention from Richard Stearman.

Fulham were slow in the first half, but they came out a rejuvenated side after the break and created a number of chances to equalise through Ross McCormack and most notably Dan Burn, whose effort cannoned off the crossbar in injury time. Moussa Dembélé was the next to try his luck but the second-half substitute could not keep his volley down.

Peter Crouch struck the only goal of the game on the half hour mark to knock the Cottagers out of the competition, but Symons believes his side was unlucky after a spirited second half display. First half we did okay but wasn’t an very bad lot in it. “I don’t like losing, but if you do, at least we lost having a go”.