So that’s sorted then. We’ve got Mark Hughes, whose first game in charge will be the final pre-season friendly against Werder Bremen a week tomorrow. I’ve said before that I would have been happy with that appointment and I still am, but I shan’t gloat. This will probably mean I’ll be a little more patient than some other fans, but obviously I still hope he gets stuck in and we start seeing some good football and some good results (for, sadly, the two do not necessarily go hand in hand) early on.

As Lydia pointed out recently, this now launches the question of which of Man City’s “surplus” players we’ll see gracing our shiny new pitch in a couple of weeks. It’s not just Man City players we’re being linked with now. There’s still the suggestion that Steve Sidwell is on his way subject to a signature or two, his teammate at Aston Villa Luke Young and possibly Rob Green if we lose Super Mark Schwarzer to Arsenal. If the papers are to be believed, Hughes will have a kitty of about £15m which should be enough for a handful of canny signings – fortunately he’s got a good team already, which just needs the odd tweak to bolster it, rather than having to make wholesale changes. Perhaps a bit of youth in midfield (sorry Danny) and a bit of support upfront and that’ll see us through. I have to say I’d quite like to see Nicky Shorey come back and play a bit more but that’s unlikely given how much cover we’ve got at left back now. There are rumours that John Paintsil may be off to West Brom so I wonder if we would need to bring in reinforcements, or perhaps shuffle around our defensive players a bit to fill the gap. I’d prefer the latter actually – the boys (and this goes for all our players, not just those at the back) seem to have a good understanding and work well together so this option shouldn’t cause too many problems. And it saves money that we can then spend where we really need it.

Hughes’ appointment is a step in the right direction but I think we’re still a couple of weeks off settling down and getting comfy. The question of the back-room staff has yet to be fully answered, and there are clearly going to be some changes to the squad which will take time to bed in, but we’ll get there. And if we don’t, I’ll eat my vuvuzela.

With Mark Hughes apparently about to become our manager I thought I would write a bit about the speculation around who will be joining the former City boss at the Cottage. Sky Bet have officailly cut the odds on Ireland and Bellamy joining due to apparant speculation surroundig the duos future at City. I’ve made no secret of my desire to see Ireland at the Cottage. He is a fantastic player and would be just the perfect Murphy replacement or could play along side him in the middle. Bellamy is a quality player and would be an excellent buy or loan. Nick has already mentioned that we would probably be most likely to get any of these players on loan which would still be a good piece of business.

I hope this isn’t a Jol-type announcement that is going to collaspe at any moment but I can’t see it happening again. I think the signing of Mark Hughes is an excellent one. Yes, we might have prefered Jol but this is an assured signing and hopefully he will continue the fantastic work that Hodgson had started.

Right, so Mark Hughes appears to be a done deal, if we are to believe the Guardian, Mail and Express (even if ESPN aren’t quite so sure). Oddly enough, when I heard the news, I was neither terribly excited nor filled with dread. Just filled with a strange sense of apathy. Anyways, my two cents for what they’re worth. (Well, two cents, obviously…..)

Yes, it could have been better. But at least the board have been ambitious in their pursuit for a new manager. Clearly Ottmar Hitzfeld was sounded out, but he turned the club down to finish the last two years of his career at international level with Switzerland. Martin Jol was always my personal choice, and was delighted to see that Fulham were trying so hard to get him, but in the end Ajax would not let him go. Reportedly, it would have taken some £8.4m to have persuaded Ajax to let go. I would have been happy with Sven Goran Eriksson too, and could see him being a good “fit” at Fulham for some reason. But Al Fayed clearly never really fancied him for the job.

Equally, however, it could have been a lot, lot worse. This is not the disaster that some fans are suggesting. Who else was available? Lee Clark – Fulham legend, but not proven in the Premier League. Same applies to Sean O’Driscoll. Whilst I believe that lower league managers should get their chance at the top level, clearly Al Fayed still has the reign of Lawrie Sanchez lodged firmly in mind, and is understandably determined not to go down that route again – perhaps why Dave Jones was discounted. Similarly, Jurgen Klinsmann and Slaven Bilic fell at a similar hurdle. Like Sanchez, they did pretty well at international level. At club level however, the former failed at Bayern whilst the latter has managed for only five games at club level, at Hajduk Spilt. Bob Bradley is a similar story – outside of the USA national team, he has managed Chicago Fire, MetroStars and Chivas USA. Rather a gamble to take.

Then there are the likes of Alan Curbishley – a good manager for a Fulham-level club, but one with some serious issues with numerous members of our playing staff; Stuart Baxter – a Hodgson-lite, it seems, with no experience of managing in England; Gianfranco Zola apparently expressed his interest, but was told thanks, but no thanks. Apart from that, who else was a viable option? Glenn Hoddle was mentioned in passing, but has been out of the game since 2006, and is concentrating on his academy. Would Manuel Pellegrini really have taken such a step down from the Bernabeu to Craven Cottage? It is clear that Fulham have taken their time to assess all the candidates, and to choose who they believe is the right man for the job.

What Fulham have got in Mark Hughes is a manager who has done well in the Premier League before, and has a point to prove that he can do so again. After doing well as the manager of Wales, he was a resounding success at Blackburn Rovers, leading them to three top-10 finishes in his four years there, including a 6th and a 7th. Deservedly so, he was hailed as being one of the best “up-and-coming” managers in the game, and all but a few years ago was heavily linked as Sir Alex Ferguson’s successor at Old Trafford.

I’m not entirely sure where this belief that Hughes has his teams play Allardyce-esque football comes from. What what I’ve seen, his teams have been (mostly) solid in the centre, with emphasis placed on counter-attacking football down the wings. Admittedly, at Blackburn they came last in the disciplinary rankings for all of his four seasons there, but how much of that was already part of the footballing culture there before he arrived, I’m not sure. What is worrying, however, is that his teams aren’t great defensively. Hopefully retaining Ray Lewington will help us keep some of the positional organisation and discipline that was such an important part of our game under Roy Hodgson.

Hughes got his move to Manchester City, where he was not the disaster that some people would have us to believe. He was sacked with Manchester City a respectable 6th in the league, having only lost once in the league all season (and that in Fergie-time at Old Trafford). Another negative thrown at him is that he wasted millions on average players at Manchester City (£22m for Joleon Lescott, anyone?). However, it must be emphasised that Manchester City do not play with the same financial constraints as everybody else, and as a result other clubs with take advantage of this when City come after their players. Whoever is at Manchester City will have to spend millions to get even the most average of players, that’s just the way it is now. Perhaps Hughes is one of those managers who are far better at finding bargains than splashing wads of cash. The Manchester City and Blackburn fans I have spoken to say that he has a good eye for a bargain, as was amply demonstrated by his time at Ewood Park.

There’s inevitably going to be much speculation now on which players Hughes is going to sign, and who will leave the club. Mark Schwarzer, Paul Konchesky and Bobby Zamora have all been heavily linked with moves away at some stage this summer, with the first two looking the more likely. Will they stay or go now that Hughes has been appointed? A deal for Steve Sidwell has been agreed, pending whether Hughes approves the deal, and whether Sidwell is happy to work with Hughes. David James is said to fancy playing at Fulham, and has been holding out until Schwarzer’s future is resolved before committing himself to anything.

Much of the transfer speculation will doubtless focus on Manchester City players, such as Craig Bellamy, Roque Santa Cruz, Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha. Personally, I cannot see these players making their way to ply their trade at Craven Cottage, at least, not all of them. For a start, Fulham only have £20m to spend – the club cannot afford to buy them. Secondly, their wages are quite simply out of our league. If Fulham were to get any of them, my guess would be that they would be loan signings. The new rules regarding 25-man squads will mean that City will be paying for players to literally do nothing. Whilst I’m sure they can afford it, it wouldn’t surprise me too much, for instance, if there was an offer to pay 50% of some players’ wages if they might come to the club on loan until January, or even the end of the season.

This is going to be an interesting couple of months for us Fulham fans. What changes will Hughes make to the management staff, playing staff and style of play? How well will Hughes and the players gel? And, perhaps most importantly of all, how will the start of the season pan out? ¬Sure, after waiting for what seems like ages, it would have been nice to have got a genuinely world-class manager. Hughes is probably as good as Fulham could possibly expect to get at this moment, with the possible exception of Jol. Personally, I am actually more interested than excited in how this appointment will develop. And I fear that is part of the problem people are having with this appointment.

Isn’t it quite odd that Fulham are so open with their manager dealings? In the past we have been one of the more secluded clubs in terms of player/manager targets and have almost never made any transfer fees public. Now, all of a sudden all details of the Jol debacle were public as they unfolded.

Is this something deliberate or is it just poor media management from the club? If it is deliberate, then why? The only two reasons I can think of are:

1. The club was so convinced to get Jol they never saw a point in keeping the lid on.
2. In order to be more open, or public if you like, with the dealings they are trying to lure some more candidates out in the open. Because let’s face it were not really big enough to be a club where managers apply to work, at least not the names we would be in the market for.

Thinking about it, none of these possible reasons make any sense, so I challenge you to share your ideas and thoughts on this new openness from the club.

Not necessarily the kind of openness one would have preferred but still a change.

According to the Guardian it looks like the club’s attentions are turning back to Sven Goran Eriksson to solve our “managerial crisis”. Although Chairman Al Fayed’s first choice was always Martin Jol, these news stories should come as little surprise given that Sven worked with our CEO Alistair Mackintosh when they were both at Man City. If the partnership worked back then, perhaps it would be sensible to give it another shot. Sven certainly seems keen to come to the Cottage, or perhaps it’s just his agent, but this come and get me plea isn’t the most subtle I’ve ever seen.

Whoever the club are looking to bring in, with the season proper nearly upon us, time is of the essence. New managers need time to get in, get their feet under the table and start making an impact. Even Roy “Miracle Worker” Hodgson needed 3 weeks to find his stride. The season starts 3 weeks today, against Bolton at the Reebok and it’ll probably take more than a deflection off Bobby Zamora’s derriére to take 3 points from there, á la the opening game of last season. It’s not a decision to be rushed into but I think it’s putting us at huge disadvantage, both in terms of preparation and training, as well as in terms of any transfer activity. Let’s hope the right man comes along soon.

Incidentally, Sven is the bookies’ fave at the moment, with quite frankly rubbish odds on him taking the helm – although you can still get 12-1 on Martin Jol so what do they know, eh?

Zoltan Gera scored twice but Fulham struggled in Sweden last night

There’s a tendency to be a bit down at the moment. No manager, a wretchedly poor performance and drawing with a side that hardly lit up the allsvenskan last season might suggest that the glass was only half full. But, when you remind yourself that this is still pre-season and with our World Cup contingent still recovering from their African odyssey, there’s plenty of time for Ray Lewington to put things right.

Lewington, who could be in charge at Craven Cottage for longer that he expected after the botched attempt to lure Martin Jol from Ajax, started with a strong side in Sweden last night and Fulham went in front after only eight minutes when Zoltan Gera reacted quickest to nod home a deflected effort from Simon Davies.

Fulham kept the ball well in the early stages, with Danny Murphy looking a little sharper than in his previous outing at Bournemouth, but gradually the sharper fitness of the hosts, who have already played a competitive league fixture, began to tell. Only an expertly-timed tackle from Stephen Kelly prevented Marcus Olsson from equalising.

The reprieve was merely temporary after an error from David Stockdale, whose failure to gather Emil Salomonsson’s speculative shot, allowed Joe Sise to convert the simplest of close-range chances. Moments later and the Swedish side were ahead. Sise sprinted onto a defence-splitting ball from Anel Raskaj and confidently slotted past Stockdale. The 20-year-old was revelling in the chance to take on Premier League opposition and he might have had a third after tormenting Aaron Hughes on the edge of the box only for Stockdale to atone for his previous error with a fabulous reflex save.

Lewington made wholesale changes at half-time but Halmstad were now clearly in the ascendancy. Amir Kujovic saw his bending effort come back off the crossbar and Alexander Prunt volleyed wide.

Fulham did eventually stem the bleeding. Damien Duff, who had moments earlier fashioned a decent chance for Bobby Zamora, beat his man with a lovely bit of skill and cleverly rolled the ball across for Gera, who drove in his second of the evening from 20 yards. The times when the Hungarian was mocked by some of the Cottage faithful are long since past.

The Whites did have chances to win in after that, with Chris Baird heading over from a free-kick and late substitute David Elm failing to finish a one-on-one, but it would have had been hard on hearty Halmstad. Lewington will be hoping for some more of the cobwebs to have been blown away by the time Fulham face Malmo on Tuesday.

HALMSTAD (4-2-3-1): Malmqvist (K. Johnsson 45); Salomonsson (Miller 45), Zvirgzdauskas (Gustafsson 45), Lundberg (Jönsson 45), Järdler (Johansson 45); Raskaj (Saevarsson 45), Rosén (Wrele 45); Görlitz (Prent 45), Anselmo (Kujovic 45), Olsson (Bala 45; N. Johnsson 45); Sise (Baqaj 45).

GOALS: Sise (25, 30)

FULHAM (4-4-2): Stockdale, Kelly, Konchesky (Smith 62), Hughes, Baird; Murphy (Dikgacoi 70), Greening, Duff, Davies (Elm 78); Gera; Zamora (E. Johnson 70).

GOALS: Gera (9, 58).

REFEREE: Martin Olsson.

ATTENDANCE: 1,885

It’s not Jol then. It strikes me as a little odd that the Club have issued a rather formally worded statement confirming that they have “ceased negotiations” when they never actually confirmed that negotiations had commenced. Still, at least we can our F5 buttons a rest for a day or so.

Who next? Your guess is probably as good as mine. I’d quite like Mark “Sparky” Hughes actually, although I fear I may be in a minority of one. I’m not convinced that Alistair Mackintosh would be all that keen either.

Either way I think I’d quite like to just get back to the football.

Alistair Mackintosh is in Amsterdam to try and secure Jol’s signature

Is no news good news? There’s not really a way of knowing.

The Daily Star quotes Martin Jol as demanding that his future is sorted out swiftly:

Ajax know about the offer from Fulham. In the past I have had other offers that no-one knows about. Now in England it is public, but that’s not my fault.

I am concerned about the future. It’s a matter for negotiation. I have not made an ultimatum but I do not want this uncertainty to last all week.

The Independent paints more of a rosy picture – suggesting that Fulham may be in a position to announce Jol’s appointment by the end of the week. Mark Fleming’s report says the former Tottenham manager remains keen to take over the reigns at Craven Cottage:

Jol has assured Mackintosh that he has not changed his mind about taking over at Fulham following the departure of Roy Hodgson to Liverpool, even though the Dutch press had quoted him as saying he had agreed to stay with Ajax.

Last week Jol agreed terms on a rolling contract with Fulham, who have offered him generous terms. He is understood to have agreed a basic salary of more than £2.5m a year, which is more than double what Hodgson was on. On top, there is a package of performance-linked bonuses, which could potentially add another £1m.

Jol was sold on making the move after conversations with Fulham’s owner, Mohamed al-Fayed. He likes the idea of working with just one boss, rather than the complicated management structure at Ajax.

We’ll just have to wait patiently.

Is it ‘bye, bye’ to Ajax?

According to the Guardian, the only stumbling block is Ajax’s intransegience.

According to sources in the Netherlands, Jol has agreed a three-year deal at Craven Cottage worth in the region of £2m a year. The contract is prepared and is merely awaiting his signature. It is the result of lengthy talks between Jol and Fulham.

Ajax, however, have dug in their heels and although the Fulham chief executive, Alistair Mackintosh, is in Amsterdam with the intention of closing the deal, the Dutch club have pulled down the shutters. Jol has two years to run on his contract at Ajax and they are keen to hold him to that, despite his desire to take on the challenge of succeeding Roy Hodgson at Fulham.

Over the last few years the club have been quite cloak and dagger about new signings. Most of the time the first we’ve heard about a new player coming in has been when it was officially announced, with very little about it appearing in the press beforehand. So how comes the last few days the papers have been all over Martin Jol coming to SW6?

It could be for a number of reasons. Perhaps somebody has joined the club recently and has started feeding stories to the media, perhaps the directors think that by getting the media under the story they’ll be able to get Jol a bit easier. Or, call my cynical, could Jol himself have had a sneaking call to one of the sports desks?

He only joined Ajax in 2009, he is a Dutchman, brought in a lot of his own staff to the club, playing in the Champions League next season and seemed quite happy there in general. Then this summer he was told the only way he’d get money to spend on the team was if he sold his best players off.

What better way to get a transfer kitty than to use the interest of another club to force your current club into it? Players do it often to get a better contract if there’s another club sniffing around them, so it’s not out of the question for him to try it. And it seems (at least according to the press) that it’s working; now he’s being told he can keep his best players and have some cash to splash too.

I hope it’s not a case of him using us to leverage himself better working conditions, but I guess we’ll only find out in due course.

Following some soccer tournament somewhere abroad recently, and the UK representative teams poor showing, it would seem the entire country has thrown its weight behind the idea of using TV replays in the game.

The whole country except myself that is.

I am totally against this. For a start as we saw first hand this past season the addition of two more sets of eyes did absolutely nothing to help with poor decisions. Remember Hangeland being red carded for a crime he didn’t commit, until Kelly went and pointed out the linesman standing about four feet away from the incident had royally muffed it up? Except to confuse me during the games (“Whats that fella in blue doing there? Oh, he’s the lineo!”) they don’t seem to have had any real impact on the matches in any positive way.

THe refferee gives Hangeland the red card. WRRRRROOOONNNGGG!!!!

The beauty of football is that no matter what level it’s played at it’s the same. A ref, two linesmen and two teams of players. If TV replays are brought in how far down the pyramid would they go? Just the Premier League? Just the League? All the way down to school football? Why should, for instance, the football league have this feature, when a team who finished one place lower in the pyramid not get this ‘advantage’? And I’d find it very hard to rig such a setup up in the park.

Andrew Cole and Leggy try to correct Halseys incorrect call

And my main problem with it is what happens if they bring it in and it works brilliantly? Trudging away from the Cottage in the drizzle after we’ve just been taken apart by an average side you can always find solace in the fact that the referee muffed it. He bottled giving that penalty, the ball did/didn’t cross the line or that foul was outside the box. If we eliminated these from the game then I’d have no way around it but to accept that my Fulham had just been beaten by a better team. And blaming the ref is half the fun. I’ll always remember the game we played on 11th September 2004. Fulham V Arsenal, refereed by Mark Halsey. Had a TV replay shown the man in black that Cashley Cole had hacked down Andrew Cole he wouldn’t have been ‘persuaded’ he saw it wrong when the Arsenal players and had it shown him that Collins Johns header should have stood it could have all been so different. Sure, we may have won and I’d have had a lot of fun that night and the following days celebrating the victory and rubbing it in to Gooner friends. But I wouldn’t have remembered it all that well today. This way I may have been very upset by the outcome and refereeing, but I had a lot of fun being upset, downbeat and mardy, moping about and my friend and me slagging off the Arsenal players and Halsey all that night in the pub, all the way home and still to this day. Without referees being able to make these decisions themselves, many times wrongly, it would take away one of the great pleasures in football; being able to blame somebody else when your team looses.

Many of the morning papers are suggesting that Fulham will announce Martin Jol’s appointment today. Still no official word from the club.

Here’s the Sun’s take, including a favourable reaction from Simon Davies.

Fulham left back Matthew Briggs made the first two goals as England Under-19s got off to a winning start at the European Championships yesterday, beating Austria 3-2.

Briggs, who played the first 56 minutes, hit a through ball for Franck Nouble to chase and – after some confusion in the Austrian defence – the West Ham striker took the ball down and fired home the opener. The second goal was almost a carbon copy of the first as Nouble raced into space behind the Austrian defence, after a slip by Gernot Trauner to double England’s lead.

The Austrians pulled a goal back through a fine David Alaba free-kick, but Thomas Cruise soon fired Noel Blake’s side into a 3-1 lead. A late rally from the Austrians produced a second, scored by Trauner, but England held on to claim the win.

All the action from Dean Court yesterday.

Matthew Briggs

It may have escaped your notice with the hoo-ha surrounding just who will succeed Roy Hodgson, but Fulham defender Matthew Briggs is likely to be representing England this afternoon.

The Academy graduate, who is very highly thought of down at Motspur Park and made his first appearance for the first team as a substitute at Middlesbrough in 2007, is part of the England under-19 squad currently in France for the European Championships. Briggs already has international honours to his name having been part of the England side that were runners-up at last year’s competition and should start today’s Group A opener against Austria at left back.

The game will kick-off at 5pm British time and you can catch all the action live on Eurosport. Noel Blake’s charges complete their group programme with fixtures against Holland (on Wednesday, 5pm) and France (on Saturday, also at 5pm).

Ray was happy with the return of Murphy and Zamora

Ray Lewington chose his post-match comments after yesterday’s draw at Bournemouth to remind the fans that pre-season is just that; preparation for the real thing.

Fulham’s caretaker manager said he was most pleased with the return to match action of goalscorer Bobby Zamora and skipper Danny Murphy.

That’s what pre-season friendly games are all about. The one thing you hope for in a pre-season friendly is that you suffer no injuries, to be brutally honest. We’ve come out injury free so that’s great.

We looked a bit leggy in the first half but between the Brentford game and today we’ve trained and it’s about where we are getting to, rather than where we are now. We looked better in the second half and could have scored a lot more goals.

Another spell on the sidelines looms for AJ

Poor old Andrew Johnson. Since he was ‘literally banjoed‘ out of our European run, the Fulham striker has hit the first hurdle every time he’s tried to regain his place in the side.

Johnson aggrivated his knee problem in January’s defeat at Blackburn and, despite returing to pre-season training, looks set for another lengthy spell on the sidelines after breaking down last week. He will fly out to America for another consultation knee surgeon Richard Steadman this week leaving Fulham desperately short of centre forwards as the new campaign draws ever closer.

It seems to be fashionable to lambast Johnson, who was Roy Hodgson’s major purchase in the summer of 2008 after the departure of Brian McBride, for both his lack of goals and injuries. Johnson might have had the impact everybody was hoping for after his arrival from Everton but he remains sharp in the penalty area and formed a great partnership with Bobby Zamora up front. You can bet centre backs don’t queue up to play against him – but it’ll be a long, hard road back from his latest setback.

The Mail on Sunday has a big splash tomorrow on Martin Jol turning his back on Ajax. It’s all rather presumptious when nothing been signed and sealed, let alone announced, but the paper portrays the deal as ‘a major coup’ for Mohamed Al Fayed.

Tight finances seem to be the major reason why Jol could be on his way back to England but it is worth chuckling at the notion that Zlatan Ibrahimovic might be one of his first signings. Alex Montgomery’s thrown in the nugget that the pair share the same agent but ‘Ibra’ is on big bucks at Barcelona and isn’t exactly known for playing nicely. He’d break a fairly stringent wage structure that Hodgson adhered to and then there’s the dressing room ructions the tempermental Swede might cause.

I thought I’d write an article on here as I’m not getting much time on the internet as I am on holiday in the heat of France. I’ve been trying to keep up to date with all the rumours about the name of our new manager and signing etc but I’m having to make do with the news papers.

The main topic on my mind has to be the topic of Martin Jol. As I’m currently with several Spurs fans I have gained a lot of confidence around this rumour! I had never considered Jol as a contender for the job until yesterday. One particular Spurs fan said, “You lucky Team!” whenever I mentioned Jols apparently imminent appointment. He said that not many Spurs fans will have a bad word to say about the guy. This kind of talk gets me excited and now really hope that the rumours are true. I hope that he signs before the boys go off to Sweden as he will need time to make the team understand his style of tactics. Jol was very unfortunate to get sacked as, after two 5th place finishes in the league, he was let go with out having much off a chance after 6 games. He then went on and did extremely well with Hamburg before moving to Ajax. He would be a good signing as he has experience and a history of doing well.

Another rumour that I wanted to write about is about Steve Sidwell who is also meant to be arriving at The Cottage soon. He would be a decent signing. He hasn’t really has much of a chance at Villa and might be able to re-ignite his career at Fulham.

Bobby Zamora spared Fulham’s blushes on his return to first-team action, scoring the equaliser as the Whites drew their second pre-season friendly at Bournemouth this afternoon.

A stronger looking side than the one that eased past Brentford on Wednesday went behind after ten minutes at Dean Court after a neat move saw Liam Feeney find Anton Robinson, whose venomous strike from distance gave David Stockdale no chance. Brede Hangeland had already blocked a shot from Feeney and Eddie Howe’s side will have few problems adapting to life in League One on this impressive showing.

Fulham levelled in controversial circumstances after 26 minutes. Fredrik Stoor, starting again at right back as John Panstil recovers from Ghana’s World Cup exertions, floated a hopeful ball into the penalty area which Shawn Jalal fumbled under pressure from Zamora, who tapped home the equaliser. The goal stood, despite protestations from the home defence that Zamora may have fouled the goalkeeper. The Cherries goalkeeper had already saved well from Zoltan Gera and repeated the feat just before the break gathering well as the Hungarian tried his luck from distance.

Eddie Johnson, who replaced Zamora at half time, looked spritly, but couldn’t make the most of the opportunities that came his way. He fluffed a chance to make an immediate impact shooting straight at the keeper after his pace had created some space and then failed to convert a one-on-one after getting the better of a dubious offside call.

The Iraqi-born custodian had an excellent afternoon and was equal to the task when Gera bore down on goal, having latched onto a good ball from Johnson. He even made a top save from David Elm as the clock ticked down.

Bournemouth had their chances too. Danny Hollands spurned a great opportunity to restore the hosts’ lead when his miskicked after a fine run and cross from substitute Harry Arter before Chris Baird had to clear a header from Mitchell Nelson off the goaline after slack marking at a corner.

BOURNEMOUTH (4-4-2): Jalal; Purches (Bradbury 45), Garry (Stephenson 72), Pearce, Cummings; McQuoid (Stockley 45), Bartley (Hollands 45), Robinson, Feeney (Nelson 63); Pitman (Partington 45), Symes (Arter, 14; Ings 60; Strugnell 80).

GOAL: Robinson (10).

FULHAM (4-4-1-1): Stockdale, Stoor (Kelly 60), Konchesky (Smith 83), Hughes, Hangeland (Marsh-Brown 83); Baird, Murphy (Greening 45), Duff (Riise 60), Davies (Saunders 74); Gera (Elm 74); Zamora (E. Johnson 45).

GOAL: Zamora (26).

REFEREE: Roger East (Salisbury).