It's sad that this result was somewhat predictable. Just as we seem to turn a metaphorical corner under Martin Jol, we take a look over our shoulder and, for some unbeknownst reason, think the grass is greener on the other, less aspiring side.

The Newcastle result was emphatic, but this was anything but. Only the Premier League remains now, and the inaugural season of our Dutch manager, a year which promised so much, is looking to be as bland as any other.

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The FA Cup tie on Friday evening provides us with not only a fantastic feast of football on an entirely unique night of the week, but the possible opportunity of progression to the fifth round. It's an important game for us, as we're out of Europe and out of the Carling Cup, so I put some questions to Brian Lewis, of Royal Blue Mersey, to catch up with all things Everton.

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Perhaps all hope seemed lost when Odense travelled to London and conspired to stamp on our fantasies. It would have been so nice, traipsing across Europe and nonchalantly defeating some of the World's best football clubs, for a second, illuminating time. It wasn't to be, though. Instead, we must make do with the FA Cup - quite possibly the most prestigious cup competition known to man and, just like the Europa League, something we've come so close to conquering while not actually doing so.

I wasn't around in 1975, but I can imagine it being a disheartening event when Fulham went 2-0 down at Wembley to West Ham United, who remain to this day the last team to win the FA Cup with an all English team. We had a side blessed by both Bobby Moore and Alan Mullery but the defeat is still by far the closest we've come to lifting this trophy. Just maybe, if we can beat Everton away from home, there'll be a whiff of nostalgia in the air, not only of 1975, but of 2010 too, and hopefully the ending can be somewhat twisted.

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I saw absolutely none of this. Nothing. Not a second.

I missed the poor first half.

I didn't have an opportunity to be confused by Martin Jol's substitutions.

And I certainly didn't get an opportunity to see Clint Dempsey score a second-half hat trick to lead Fulham past New Castle 5-2.

I saw none of it.

The only thing that grants me any semblance of solace is the wonderous, technological marvel that is online video. A permanent memory derived from an everlasting replay.

Uncanny reflexes, intelligent positioning, pace, composure and assured finishing. This was no set of tap ins.

Believe it or not, this is Dempsey's second hat trick in the last two games at the Craven Cottage, having putt a trio past Charlton Athletic in the Carling Cup.

Dempsey's effort was bookended by penalty kick goals, the first coming from Danny Murphy to tie things at 1-1.

Fulham are now 12th in the table, eight points above the relegation zone and continuing to look like the Premiership's most bi-polar of Jekyll and Hydes.

In what has been an unusually active transfer window day for Fulham FC, Mark Schwarzer has extended his contract with the club whilst youngsters Jack Grimmer and Lasse Vigen Christensen have joined from Scotland and Denmark respectively.

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That he can be so integral to one of Fulham Football Club's greatest ever periods of success and yet still undergo regular, age-related denunciation is a somewhat baffling sentiment for our captain, Danny Murphy. He's a man that has witnessed and stimulated a dramatic relegation escape in 2008, Fulham's highest ever finish in 2009 and the infamous European antics of 2010. Past merits just don't cut it, though, when we witness Murphy misplacing balls and generally offering the team sporadic displays of weariness.

But sporadic is just the perfect word to describe Murphy's form of late, and while it's irritable to see the 33 year-old at his jaded worst, when he plays to the utmost limit of his wisdom-laced talent, he's a player who proves to be deceptively unstoppable and undoubtedly invaluable to Fulham's play under Martin Jol.

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