A goal two minutes from time by Oldham’s Callum Lang knocked Fulham FC out of the FA Cup just four minutes after the League Two club’s goalkeeper Daniel Iversen had saved a penalty from Aleksandar Mitrovic to keep them in the competition.
Fulham manager Claudio Ranieri saw this fixture as a chance to get game time into some players who were short of match practice. What he would have wanted even less than a replay at Boundary Park was a further blow to his team’s morale as they attempt to get out of the bottom three of the Premier League.
But that was only what Fulham deserved for a flat performance. Denis Odoi scored his first goal of the season to break the deadlock after 52 minutes following a dismal first half in which neither side managed a shot on target. But Oldham, cheered on by a vocal following in the Putney End, equalised in the 76th minute with a penalty from substitute Sam Surridge after Ryan Sessegnon fouled Latics captain Peter Clarke. Sessegnon, also a substitute, had only been on the field a matter of two minutes.
Ranieri then brought on Mitrovic to take his side's penalty but that substitution was no more successful than his first had been, Iversen reading the striker's penalty to perfection before Lang, 20, on loan from Wigan, decided the match.
Ranieri made six changes to the team beaten 4-1 by Arsenal in order to look at players who have not been regulars since he arrived, Floyd Ayite and Neeskens Kebano making their first starts under the Italian.
Ayite put headers either side of the goal in a tepid opening spell. None of the Fulham players were making anything happen in the way that Mitrovic, watching from the bench, usually does. Ayite was one of the few who looked interested in fighting his way into the first team, and Oldham captain Peter Clarke was forced to block his angled shot at the expense of a corner.
The longer the first half went on, the more Oldham realised there was nothing much to fear. Johan Branger, the France-born Gabon winger, launched some ambitious dribbles and Ibrahima Cisse’s attempt to intercept a low cross from Gevaro Nepomuceno almost turned the ball past Marcus Bettinelli. Kebano was booked for diving when running on was surely the better option.
When Oldham forced two corners in succession in the dying seconds of the first half, you wondered if it would be their moment. But Fulham survived and were ahead seven minutes into the second half. Oldham defender George Edmundson did well to head away a cross from Kebano on the left but was still recovering his bearings when the ball dropped for Odoi to chest down and poke past Iversen.
Kebano then produced a clever pass between two defenders to find Jean Michael Seri, who made space with a clever turn. Had he shot he might have scored one of the goals of the round, but instead he passed back, which more or less summed up Fulham’s lack of ambition. Oldham substitute Surridge showed no such inhibitions, forcing a save from Bettinelli with an angled volley.
Fulham should have made the game safe after 64 minutes when Tom Cairney sent Kebano racing through on his own but with only Iversen to beat, he shot wide.
Oldham could have levelled when Edmundson just failed to get his head to Mohammed Maouche’s free kick. But after 74 minutes substitute Sessegnon bundled over Clarke as Maouche’s corner came in and Surridge coolly converted the penalty.
Oldham only needed to keep their heads to take Fulham back to Boundary Park but instead Christopher Missilou waved his toe at Tom Cairney in the penalty area and made just enough contact with Cairney’s ankle to justify Anthony Taylor’s award of a penalty, if not the Fulham captain’s extravagant fall. Ranieri sent on Mitrovic to take the kick but Iversen guessed correctly and dived to his left to keep the ball out.
The Oldham fans were ecstatic and their delight was multiplied when Nepomuceno crossed and Lang headed back across Bettinelli and into the fourth round draw.
Teams
Fulham (4-2-3-1): Bettinelli; Odoi, Chambers, Ream, Le Marchand; Cisse, Seri; Ayite, Cairney (Mitrovic 84), Kebano (R Sessegnon 73); Vietto.
Substitutes not used: Fabri, Schurrle, Christie, S Sessegnon, Kamara.
Oldham Athletic (4-2-3-1): Iversen; Haymer, Clarke, Edmundsen, Nepomuceno; Lyden, Missilou; Lang, Maouche, Branger; O’Grady (Surridge 61).
Substitutes not used: De La Paz, Taylor, Baxter, Graham, Hunt, Sylla.
Referee: Anthony Taylor.
