Cairney strikes as Fulham win at Crawley

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Tom Cairney, Jazz Richards and Liam Donnelly all scored as Fulham beat Crawley 3-1 in an entertaining pre-season friendly.

The home side, relegated from League One last season, threatened first when Roarie Deacon sent a thundering effort cannoning off the underside of the bar early on.

But Fulham took the lead on 15 minutes as Crawley keeper Callum Preston turned Matt Smith’s header into the path of Cairney, who slotted home the rebound.

However the Reds were level within a couple of minutes. Jazz Richards was adjudged to have brought down Izale McLeod on the corner of the area and the striker converted the penalty.

Preston, who impressed in goal for Crawley, made a superb block from Jamie O’Hara’s close range effort but he was beaten just before the break by Richards, who latched on to Ross McCormack’s through ball before applying the finish.

Fulham made seven changes at the break but kept McCormack on and he was denied by Preston early in the second half, before Crawley raced up the other end and substitute keeper Andy Lonergan smothered a shot from Deacon.

Adam Taggart went close with a shot across goal but Fulham had to wait until injury time to add a gloss to the scoreline, with Donnelly scoring after Crawley failed to deal with a corner.

Fulham first-half team: Bettinelli; Richards, Hutchinson, Bodurov, Kavanagh; Cairney, Christensen, O’Hara, Kacaniklic; McCormack, Smith.

Fulham second-half team: Lonergan; Grimmer, Hutchinson (Donnelly 62), Bodurov (Burgess 62), Kavanagh (Voser 62); Cole, Tunnicliffe, Hyndman, Pringle; McCormack (Taggart 62), Woodrow.

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