BWFC24

Fulham 2 - 1 Bolton Wanderers

Ground: Craven Cottage | Attendance: 19,768 | Referee: Graham Poll

• [4] McBride - Fulham
• [18] McBride - Fulham
• [91] Legwinski [og] - Bolton

Not a great result for The Wanderers as American Brian McBride not only took Fulham ahead by scoring twice but he denied Kevin Nolan. in the 78th, by blocking his hooked shot at goal following Gary Speed’s corner.

As a mark of respect a minute of silence for former Fulham player, George Best who died on Friday. Silence turned into applause as both teams and their supporters paid tribute to the man that everyone seems to have loved.

Fulham obviously wanted to play for points and Bolton, well, just handed all three to them. Radhi Jaidi was back in defence and seemed to watch as Radzinski received the ball from McBride and passed the ball behind the defenders back into McBride’s path who scored neatly despite Jussi Jaaskelainen rushing out off his line.

A couple of minutes later Radzinski and McBride repeated their one-two tricks but Tal Ben Haim slid in to block Radzinski’s shot .

Nolan took his first shot which was directly at Fulham ‘keeper Mark Crossley, a rare chance to equalise squandered. Jaidi misjudged a long kick by Crossley and fell letting in a better balanced McBride to score his second in the 18th minute.

Fulham continued to attack and dominate the game, but there was the odd chance to come back with Crossley being the apparent target for a Kevin Davies header and a wild volley from Hidetoshi Nakata.

Jaidi was taken off either because of his ongoing niggling injury or because he was proving to be a defensive liability - you decide. Bruno N’Gotty took his place.

Overall The Trotters were battling, unfortunately with dodgy tackles and verbal abuse rather than skill and flair. As a result of which the first half saw four of the Wanderers had go into Mr Poll’s book.

The second half did not start any better for The Wanderers either, with Malbraque taking a shot at Jussi. More pressure was to come giving Jaaskelainen a thorough test. Diouf has his protests for a penalty waived away. Not even Diouf’s dives were providing The Wanderers with any hope. Hope came too late in the game and it was not even given by a Bolton player. In the final minute of normal time Bolton pulled one back thanks to Legwinski as he attempted to clear the ball from Nolan.

It was 2-1, but too late - the final whistle was blown, as was BWFC’s chance to go third in The Premiership. Even though the match was over Diouf still managed to get booked for the second time, resulting in a red card as he left the field.

What a great day out - Big Sam’s men could not score, could not defend and could not behave. Seven Bolton players were booked resulting in a fine for the club.

3 points for Fulham and well deserved too, not that they played amazing football - it was just that Bolton were so terrible.