Fulham reach the FA Cup quarter finals beating Leeds United.

 Fulham reach the FA Cup quarter finals beating Leeds United.

Older Fulham supporters often look back with overwhelming feelings of regret, sadness, philosophical resignation, longing for the good times and a sense that opportunities may have been squandered in the past. In recent seasons Fulham have been bouncing from the Championship to the Premier League rather like somebody on a trampoline who can't quite adjust to an easier way of life. Sometimes it just makes sense to keep your feet on the ground with an activity that's rather less arduous and demanding.

This season Fulham have developed the most pleasant feeling of belonging and acceptance. At the moment they are now sixth in the Premier League and somebody must have told them that you can reach the giddy heights of success with the right manager and an important sense of direction. European football is still a fanciful objective for Fulham but you never know. The Cottagers famous comedian and chairman Tommy Trinder would almost have certainly called the fans those lucky people. It isn't often you get to tread the boards or trip the light fantastic in such elevated company.

Last night Fulham booked their place in the FA Cup quarter finals with a highly impressive and professional 2-0 victory over Leeds United. Those of a nostalgic turn will probably tell you that both Fulham and Leeds reached their respective FA Cup Finals within three years of each other during the 1970s. The late and great Bobby Moore and Alan Mullery led out Fulham in the 1975 FA Cup Final against West Ham and Leeds were still revelling in their only FA Cup win against Arsenal in 1972.

Some of us can still see the down to earth and pragmatic Don Revie walking out at Wembley, overly critical and judgmental if he thought his players were becoming lazy and lackadaisical while Alec Stock of Fulham was a jolly, jocular and humorous character who just embraced life. Both experienced contrasting fortunes with their teams. Fulham were beaten by West Ham in one of the dullest and most disappointing of London derby FA Cup Finals. Revie had Peter Lorimer, Billy Bremner, Mick Jones, Jack Charlton, Alan Clarke and Johnny Giles in their illustrious ranks so Revie had much more to celebrate than Stock. Besides, you'd never want to be on the wrong side of an argument with Revie anyway.

And yet for Fulham at least this must have felt like redemption for all those wasted years of going nowhere in the lower divisions. Exactly 60 years ago, Fulham demolished Ipswich Town with a 10-1 win on Boxing Day. There followed years and years of emptiness and mediocrity, the butt of music hall jokes, ridicule on the most humiliating scale and there was a sense that people were giggling behind their backs. For the next couple of decades the Cottagers became an industry without productivity. So they went back to sleep and just snored contentedly in both the old Second Division and Third.

The giddy, happy days of Tosh Chamberlain, Johnny Haynes, Jimmy Hill, Tony Macedo, Viv Busby and John Mitchell now meant much more to a generation that just loved its home grown players. The romantics will always point to one season in particular. It was the mid 1970s and somebody must have had the right connections. Fulham were about to start the season in their usually mundane fashion, dedicated to their craft but maybe bordering on the businesslike without any flights of fancy.

Then suddenly, in the most stunning exhibition of audacity, Fulham ventured into the unknown. George Best and Rodney Marsh were summoned to that placid club by the River Thames. For the grumbling and disgruntled who would regularly turn up on the Fulham terraces, this was a complete shock to their system as well as a cultural thunderbolt from nowhere. Within a couple of weeks Best and Marsh had converted Fulham into one of the most delightful of attacking teams in the old Second Division.

Best and Marsh were the dynamic duo, laughing, joking, teasing and taunting poor Hereford United in a comfortable 4-0 victory at the Cottage. After one goal they proceeded to slap each other's hands, smiled broadly at each other and then kept indulging in the most hilarious tomfoolery. It was football from another planet. Both slowed the game to walking pace, leisurely holiday makers and transforming the Beautiful Game into something that lent itself easily to the realms of fun and frivolity. They kept the ball for lengthy periods and just restored our faith in how the game, perhaps unrealistically, should be played.

But now Fulham are back in the Premier League after a brief spell with a yo yo in their hands. Their manager Marco Silva is a well qualified purist, a stickler for the prettier aspects of the game, devoted wholly to the short, sharp and sweet passing game and, quite understandably, an idealist. Things didn't quite go according to plan for Silva at Everton but at Fulham there are now shades of  Best and Marsh in their pomp. Their football has a polished sheen, a shining lustre and a technically triumphant feel about it.

Last night Fulham wove and spun their lacy passing patterns in much the way Silva would have wanted. The ball was exchanged at ground level with a handsome authority and tenderness of touch that none could have anticipated when they were still rubbing shoulders with the likes of Plymouth, Port Vale, Preston, Oldham and Swindon Town. But there is an air of palpable magic in the air by the River Thames and the age of enlightenment has well and truly arrived at Craven Cottage. For the time being the Cottagers are in no mood to loaf about idly while others are winning trophies.

When the likes of Tim Ream, Marek Rodak, Andres Pereira, Cedric Soares, Bobby De Cordova Reed were linking daisy chains of passes around Leeds as if spring had already sprung, the home fans could hardly believe what they were watching. Reed, Soares and Carlos Vinicius were all powerful, lively and permanently athletic, carrying the ball forward with poise and panache. Then Tosin kept appearing in open spaces in the Leeds half, searching, hunting and foraging with vigorous intent, while the brave and heroic Aleksandar Mitrovic battled gamely for goals that never came.

Leeds for their part are under the management of former Watford boss Javi Garcia, a man with a huge responsibility on his shoulders and managing a club that used to terrify the old First Division with classical football that sadly turned nasty and unsavoury at times. Garcia looks both affable and likable and comparisons with the blunt Revie are utterly ludicrous. Leeds are flapping furiously this season, desperately hoping that something will turn up for the best. Their football is daring and ambitious, forward thinking and progressive at times but the defence does creak alarmingly at times and a young side is still learning the ropes.

The visitors had Luke Ayling striving purposefully for possession, passing with both accuracy and foresight quite notably at times but then losing his bearings as well. Robin Koch, Rasmus Kristensen, Americans Weston Mckennie and Tyler Adams and Marc Roca were all gelling together quite brilliantly and intelligently, carving Fulham open like butchers slicing open Sunday beef. Then Junior Firpo gave us a cultured display of his exotic skills, Crysencio Summerville moving the ball easily in and around the Leeds defence like a child jumping on and off a fairground carousel. Leeds, in sporadic periods, were a handful for Fulham but then Georginio Rutter, alongside Wilfred Gnoto, missed perfect chances to score in excellent positions. The cutting edge was quite clearly missing for the visitors.

Fulham duly took the lead after an excellent high tempo approach to the game in its opening stages. Attacking with a symphony of movement and clever thinking, Joao Paulhinha, picking up a ball from his nearby colleagues, jockeyed into space, before floating a beautifully curled, bending shot that flew past Leeds goalkeeper Ilian Meisler who could only admire the goal.

From that point onwards Fulham grew in stature and confidence, switching the ball lightly and effortlessly between them as if a previous arrangement had been made before them. When Israeli forward Manor Solomon had fired an identical goal to the one had beaten Wolves last Friday, Fulham must have thought of dreamland. The Cottage had recognised boundless possibilities and the spectre of an FA Cup Final must have entered their minds. They have a number of obstacles to negotiate but with the absence of Arsenal and Chelsea in the sixth round, quarter final draw, Fulham may well become Trinder's lucky people. The FA Cup has many cunning tricks up the sleeve. Watch this space.