Fulham 0-2 Liverpool

This Bloodless win for the Reds confirmed what we already knew: Fulham will be relegated in as much of a mess on the pitch as Liverpool are off it.

After being stuffed by Bristol Rovers in the FA Cup and struggling to beat even Derby this season, defeat by Liverpool reserves pretty much summed up the campaign for Roy Hodgson's under-achievers.

This win also made fools of those who reckoned Rafa Benitez's decision to field a largely second-string team would gift Fulham three points.

Jermaine Pennant took advantage of some awful goalkeeping from Kasey Keller to put Liverpool in front after 17 minutes. Peter Crouch slipped the second under Keller in the 70th minute to prove it's not only off the pitch that Americans are having nightmares.

And that was pretty much that. The subdued Fulham fans - who never really believed they would beat Liverpool, eight changes or not - spent the contest wondering what they were going to do with their Saturday afternoons next season. And the match programme contained a "nice while it lasted" piece, the writer clearly well aware that relegation might well see Fulham go the way of many once-big clubs who have struggled to make it back to the top flight.

To rub salt into the wounds for the home fans leaving at the end, news filtered through that Chris Coleman was busy masterminding a 5-1 win for Coventry at Colchester.

How Fulham owner Mohamed Al Fayed must regret sacking the Welshman at the first sign of trouble.

Fulham say that Hodgson's position as manager is not under scrutiny but it should be. The former Blackburn and Inter Milan boss has had more than enough time to make an impact and palpably has not done so.

It's a fair bet that Lawrie Sanchez will be keeping his head down too after blowing the £30million that Coleman should have been given on players nowhere near good enough.

Fulham have won only five league games all season, but Hodgson insisted: "I'm not prepared to say that Fulham are not worthy of a place in the Premier League.

"We've had nearly full houses in every home game since I've been here and I don't think you can suggest that, just because we are in the bottom three, we are a club that don't deserve this status.

"If we ever got a decent run at it we could establish ourselves as a middle-of-the-table team."

Man of the match Crouch explained why the pundits were wrong to believe that in-fighting at Anfield would affect the performance of the Liverpool players.

"It's not something that the players really care about," he said. "We talked about it when it first started. But although we read the papers, it's not something that's been discussed by the players.

"You can tell by our results it's not something that's affected our form."

Fulham: Keller 3, Stalteri 5, Hughes 4, Hangeland 3, Konchesky 4, Davies 5, Bullard 4, Murphy 5 (Andreasen 78), Dempsey 5, Healy 5d(Nevland 76), McBride 5 (Kamara 81).

Liverpool: Reina 8, Finnan 7, Skrtel 8, Hyypia 6 (Carragher 46, 7), Riise 7, Pennant 8, Lucas 8, Mascherano 8(Alonso 72), Benayoun 7, Voronin 7 (Aurelio 82), Crouch 9.

Referee: Martin Atkinson

ATTENDANCE: 25,311

MAN OF THE MATCH
Peter Crouch (LIVERPOOL)
Won every header and gave Fulham's defenders a torrid time

VILLAIN OF THE MATCH
Kasey Keller (FULHAM)