Readying for a first game of the season under lights : Picture by @YTJourno
**Fulham (2) 2** Tanner og 8, Jimenez 21
Well that was easy. Now, if only Saturday lunchtime could prove as straightforward.
Marco Silva's much-changed team breezed past Championship Bristol City with the minimum of fuss to earn a third round tie in a competition they really should target - and it puts them in good heart for the local assignment coming up at Stamford Bridge.
The Whites did not need to flip through many gears to get the job done. They got the helping hand of an early goal and then a set piece strike to have the game well under control inside the first quarter.
The Whites' line-up at the start may have included plenty of B-listers but it did not take long for them to gain the ascendancy.
Adama Traore has been a marginal figure so far this season and needs game him. He issued a reminder of what he can do after just eight minutes when he shrugged off the attentions of Ross McCrorie before sending in a cross that defender George Tanner obligingly turned past his own keeper under pressure from Raul Jimenez.
Tom Cairney was given a rare start, as was Harrison Reed, and from the latter's corner, Jimenez was given too much space - being allowed to control seven yards out and fire low past keeper Joe Lumley.
The visitors' early woes were compounded by a knee injury to Josh Stokes, which forced the youngster off the field, though the arrival of Anis Mehmeti at least provided some spark for the Robins.
After the break, Traore almost caught out Lumley with a near-post effort but City rallied with some spirited periods of possession - albeit without carving out too many real openings. Sub Fally Mayulu came closest with a low shot that rattled a post in injury time.
The Whites paraded new French signing Benjamin Lecomte in goal but this was no night on which to judge the 34-year-old as he had so little to do. There were no shots on target to trouble him - Sinclair Armstrong belting the ball high into the Hammy End during a rare moment on the front foot for the downbeat visitors.
Bristol City had ex-Chelsea man Tammy Abraham in the side when they last contested - and won - a League Cup tie at Craven Cottage nine years ago - but their more recent visit saw them flattened 6-2 and Fulham fully expected to make the third round, which they duly did with the minimum of fuss.
Former QPR men Armstrong and Rob Dickie were in the West Country team's ranks as well as Lumley and it's fair to say none of them overly enjoyed their return to west London.
**Whites:** (4-2-3-1) Lecomte - Castagne (King 70), Diop, Cuenca, Sessegnon (Bassey 64) - Reed, Cairney - Traore, Wilson (Iwobi 64), Smith Rowe (Lukic 87) - Jimenez (Muniz 70)
**Robins:** (3-4-2-1) Lumley - Tanner, Vyner, Dickie - McCrorie (Sykes h/t), Knight, Bird (Randell 60), Hirakawa (Roberts 75) - Stokes (Mehmeti 14), Bell (Mayulu 60)- Armstrong