HAVING not dispatched a team from a higher level since 1984 and only non-league Salisbury City since 2001, debt-haunted Sheffield Wednesday are hardly the doughtiest FA Cup fighters.

Yesterday they made their customary early exit, to an Andy Johnson-inspired Fulham, but as home manager Brian Laws noted, “we walk away with credibility”.

Ravaged by injury, the Owls could name just five of their allocated seven substitutes, of whom only Nathan Modest had started a first-team game.

Fulham omitted Jimmy Bullard with a virus perhaps similar to the one that indisposed Jermain Defoe at Portsmouth, while John Pantsil and Simon Davies were substitutes.

Barely a minute had passed when a desperate Mark Schwarzer foiled Jermaine Johnson, first with his hands and then with his feet.

Rattled Fulham soon calmed themselves with a goal that oozed class, albeit their first in five away treks.

Andy Johnson, inset, latched on to a superlative Danny Murphy through- ball and tucked it insouciantly around Lee Grant.

When Wednesday full-back Tommy Spurr gathered James O’Connor’s sideways pass 30 yards out, 21 minutes in, he launched an equalising howitzer past Schwarzer.

Although Dickson Etuhu crashed a long-ranger against Grant’s bar, Wednesday were spurred by Spurr. Jermaine Johnson headed over Luke Boden’s cross, before ballooning Francis Jeffers’ centre over the bar.

The second half was Fulham’s and Grant twice saved brilliantly from Clint Dempsey, while Erik Nevland missed two simple chances created by Andy Johnson.

The almost unplayable Johnson then neatly guided Nevland’s cross past Grant.

Schwarzer made a terrific last-gasp save from Jeffers but Wednesday could not complain at the result and, when Buxton sliced against his post in stoppage time, it could have been worse.

Fulham’s manager, Roy Hodgson, said: “The league is the priority, but I won’t be pleased the day we go out of the cup.”

Star man: Andy Johnson (Fulham)

Yellow card: Sheffield Wednesday: O’Connor

SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY: Grant 7, Buxton 6, Wood 6, Beevers 6, Spurr 6, Small 5 (Modest 77min), McAllister 7, O’Connor 6, Boden 5, Jeffers 6, Johnson 5 (Lekaj 89min)

FULHAM: Schwarzer 6, Stoor 6, Hughes 6, Hangeland 6, Konchesky 6, Dempsey 6, Murphy 7, Etuhu 5, Gray 5 (Davies 77min), Johnson 8, Zamora 5 (Nevland 69min)

Referee: L Mason

Attendance: 18,377

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