Under-fire Pierre Sage boosted by Crystal Palace win over Fulham in EFL Cup

Crystal Palace eased the pressure on manager Pierre Sage as Eddie Nketiah’s first-half goal saw them to a 1-0 win over Fulham at Craven Cottage.

Sage’s team will play in the Carabao Cup quarter-final but Fulham will wonder how after they dominated virtually every aspect of the game against a team lacking in confidence and low on ideas.

Despite the win, there was little to convince travelling fans that a corner has been turned in their team’s torrid start to the season.

When Palace won 3-2 on this ground on September 5, Alvaro Arbeloa appeared to be the new manager whose future looked uncertain.

Two wins in the last two games have relieved the pressure and hauled Fulham up the Premier League table, and Sage, whose Palace team have sunk to 17th, now looks to be the manager in peril. It remains to be seen whether he will be in charge to lead his team in the next round.

Supporters in the away end sang their under-fire boss’ name late in the fist half with their team a goal up, but this was another performance to draw concern for the club’s direction since the Frenchman was appointed.

That Fulham failed to score was remarkable. Early on, Kenny Tete was left free at the far post at a corner but headed into the side-netting, then Palace were saved by the foot of Dean Henderson after leaving more space inside the box for Antonee Robinson to shoot.

Joachim Andersen ought to have scored against his old club but sent an unchallenged header over the bar from inside the six-yard box, as Palace again failed to mark at a corner.

The visitors were poor throughout the first half. On the rare occasion they brought the ball into Fulham’s half, there was little idea of what to do with it. Cheick Doucoure summed things up for his team with an awful pass to no one that rolled away for a throw-in.

Fulham appeared to be coasting towards half-time, but then the first piece of quality from Palace caught them cold. A lovely cross from the right by Oscar Mingueza saw Nketiah manoeuvre himself across Andersen and expertly turn the ball wide of Benjamin Lecomte into the corner.

From then on it was a matter of attack versus defence, with Palace at times doing seemingly little more than stand and watch Fulham play through them. Henderson somehow kept out Alex Iwobi from virtually on the goal-line as Palace made yet another botched attempt to clear away a corner.

A rare foray forward saw Daichi Kamada poke a shot wide from Tyrick Mitchell’s cut-back, but it would have been far from a fair reflection of things had it squeezed inside the post.

Gonzalo Garcia put another free header straight at Henderson in stoppage time. In the end, Fulham simply ran out of time, as Sage’s team squeaked through.