A fiasco for the new entrant of the Premier League – a shameful loss to the 4th league club in the League Cup

Crawley Town’s second goal scorer James Balagizi | Photo: Sky Sports

An unexpected loss in the English League Cup was experienced on Tuesday by the football players of the Premier League unit London “Fulham”, who recognized the superiority of the fourth league (“League Two”) club “Crawley Town” in the second round match with 0:2 (0:1). “Fulham” was already in the first half with 0:1, when in the 16th minute Tom Nichols scored an accurate shot. In the second half, the hosts also scored the second goal – in the 49th minute, James Balagizi made it 2-0 with a productive shot.

Crawley Town, coached by ex-Fulham midfielder Kevin Betsey from this season, have picked up just one point from five games in the fourth-placed league this season and are in the relegation zone, while Fulham are seventh after Saturday’s win over Brentford place in the premier league. Fulham boss Marco Silva made ten changes in the 3-2 win over Brentford.

“Fulham” has become the only one in the third Premier League to lose to “Crawley Town” in recent years – before that, Norwich “City” and “Leeds” United also experienced failures against the latter. With the defeat, Fulham became the first Premier League team to lose in the League Cup this season.

Meanwhile, in the post-match penalty shoot-out series, “Bournemouth” secured a place in the next round, which fought to a 2:2 draw in regular time with Norwich City, who left the Premier League after last season. Bournemouth won 5-3 in the penalty shootout. Also, in the “pendulum” series, Leicester “City” celebrated a 3:1 victory against the fourth league club Stockport “County”. Regular time ended goalless.

On the other hand, the most convincing victories in the matches of the second round were celebrated by the Premier League clubs “Southampton” and “Nottingham Forest”, with a 3-0 victory over Cambridge “United” from the third power league and “Grimsby Town” from the fourth league, respectively, and “Aston Villa” from Birmingham with 4 :1 beat Bolton Wanderers (third power league). The remaining games of the second round will be played today and Premier League teams Newcastle United, Brighton & Hove Albion and Leeds United will be playing.