We were there when Pablo scored!

West Ham 2 Fulham 3 (Carabao Cup)

Before kick-off Tony Gale is on the pitch paying tribute to Ludo Miklosko and Tomas Soucek lays a Miklosko shirt behind Finlay Herrick's goal. There's a moving minute of applause for the Hammers great followed by Bubbles. RIP Ludo.

The big news in the stand is that Nigel has made his first ever visit to the Carpenters Arms and Sam is sporting a number 15 West Ham shirt with "Greek Bloke" on the back. We're joined by Matt, Lisa and CQ, though Michael is absent watching the big one of Hornchurch versus Worthing.

It's a somewhat weakened side with Bowen and Solomon on the bench and Kante and Mukasa forced into wide roles, while Pablo and Ajala start up front. Fulham pass the ball around nicely and take the lead when Palacios gets down the left too easily to cross for the poorly-marked Muniz to head home.

But there always seem to be goals now in West Ham games. The equaliser comes quickly after a corner. Engels plays in a good second phase cross and Mavropanos heads across goal for Morato to score. The 12th Hammer to score this season.

However it's soon evident that the speedy Robinson is causing Walker-Peters all sorts of problems and Palacios is running midfield. A simple ball over the top sees Palacios race through to score. Robinson easily beats KWP for pace but his inviting cross is missed by Fulham's strikers.

PORTUGEEZER

But Fulham haven't accounted for Pablo. Shortly before the interval a good move sees Walker-Peters cross and Kante produce a clever flick that is parried by Lecomte. From a tight angle Pablo fires the rebound into the top corner. A great finish and the Portugeezer celebrates like he's won the World Cup and so do we. A chorus breaks out of, "We were there when Pablo scored!" His first goal in 22 games.

The second half sees Fulham establish midfield control, though West Ham still create chances. Nuno brings on Bowen and Solomon, Pablo almost gets on the end of Bowen's cross and Solomon has a goalbound shot deflected. Then the Greek Bloke heads just wide from Bowen's corner when he should probably score.

It's Fulham who get the winner. Kante loses the ball on the edge of the box and Bobb dances through Walker-Peters and Kilman to poke past the unsighted Herrick. Matt gets increasingly incensed, prompting Nigel to quip that he's not loving Engels tonight. There's almost an equaliser but Bowen fires over when well-placed and sub Taty's rather tame shot is cleared off the line. 

Mavropanos dawdles and almost gives away a fourth but in the end it's 2-3 and we're out of the Carabao Cup. Orford, Kante and Ajala have all struggled a bit against a good passing side from the Premier League, but will learn from this.

In Ye Olde Back Bull CQ talks us through her London pub rock tour and we learn that Matt has gathered a new audience of trainspotters on YouTube after posting footage of his steam train ride in Wales. Nigel is looking forward to watching 70 Up complete with Lib Dem councillor Neil Hughes, whom we encountered in Bampton, Cumbria while bagging Wainwrights. 

On the train home Big Sam is collared by an American lady who has seen his shirt and says she loves Greece. He has to break it to her that he is not actually a Greek Bloke himself but a fan of West Ham's Greek Bloke.

It's never nice to lose but I'd swap this defeat for a win at Millwall. With 46 league games we don't really need a cup run. It's been an entertaining (and cheap) game but now we really do have to concentrate on the league.

PLAYER RATINGS: Herrick 6; Walker-Peters 5, Mavropanos 6, Kilman 5, Morato 6 (Scarles n/a); Mukasa 5 (Bowen 7), Engels 6, Orford 5 (Piroe n/a), Kante 5; Pablo 7 (Castellanos 5), Ajala 5 (Solomon 6).