Fulham 3
Leicester 2

Fulham manager Roy Hodgson today confirmed he is still chasing Sunderland midfielder Dickson Etuhu. That could spell bad news for Jimmy Bullard and Danny Murphy, whose late strikes gave Fulham a barely-deserved 3-2 Carling Cup victory against Leicester City.

Bullard, especially, owed a goal to those few Fulham fans who bothered to turn up at Craven Cottage last night, because he spent the best part of this second-round tie out of sorts.

Murphy, Fulham's new club captain, was not at his best either as he and Bullard failed to find the spark that ignited such fireworks against Arsenal on Saturday. By the time Fulham play their next Premier League match at home to Bolton a fortnight on Saturday, the combative Etuhu could be challenging for one of their positions.

Hodgson, who has made no secret of his desire to strengthen his midfield with a defensive-minded player, had hoped to bring in Etuhu as part of an exchange deal involving David Healy.

In the end, Healy joined Sunderland in a straight cash deal understood to be worth £1.5million. But Etuhu, the 26-year-old Nigerian international, may still become a Fulham player before the transfer window closes on Monday.

"There is still some chance that will happen," said Hodgson. "We're hopeful that the deal will go through."

It is unlikely, however, that Etuhu's imminent arrival will see Bullard depart to Bolton, who have been chasing Fulham's talisman for some time.

After his pivotal performance against Arsenal the energetic Bullard insisted he was determined to give his all for the club that stood by him during a long recovery from a serious knee injury. And despite watching him offer an uncharacteristically poor performance against Leicester, Hodgson went out of his way to back his man.

He said: "In the second half Jimmy was guilty of giving the ball away. But it was the quality of his strike that brought us back in the game."

Having secured a 31st-minute lead when Zoltan Gera's shot deflected off Michael Morrison, Fulham were stunned by two goals scored in 90 seconds at the start of the second half by Paul Dickov and Andy King.

Leicester proceeded to take control of a game watched by a crowd of just 7,584 and looked set for an upset when Bullard played a brilliant one-two with Simon Davies before letting fly from outside of the penalty area for an 83rd-minute equaliser. Then, two minutes into added time, Murphy fired in from 25 yards for the winner.

Hodgson said: "When push comes to shove Danny is a fellow you can rely upon. He never stops working even when things aren't going right for him."

But the Fulham boss was not blind to the general deficiencies of his side.

He admitted: "We couldn't seem to find our rhythm, we gave the ball away, we didn't move it quick enough, and we defended too deep."