Fulham 2-1 Bolton WanderersAfter a few scoops at ‘The Trout’ in Hammersmith, Richard and I – the two lucky competition winners – set off on foot for Craven Cottage, carry-out in hand. We saw a few fellow GAWA soldiers out and about on the streets of Putney before the game. Mind you, they all looked a wee bit ‘County Antrim’ so we kept our interaction with them down to a cursory nod…
We arrived at the picturesque ground to find the surrounding streets in chaos as it appeared that the entire crowd had all turned up at the same time. Strangely it also seemed that most of them had either never been to the Cottage before or else there was a virulent strain of the ‘Ronald Reagans’ on the go as no-one seemed to know where they were going. After standing in the wrong queue for a while, thanks to one of the really helpful stewards, we shuffled across to the right one to collect our tickets. Nobody likes queuing and we were no different. However, an announcement soon cheered us up as it transpired that, due to a computer problem, all of the Season Ticket holders 
in the queue beside us were told to go and queue somewhere else, much to their annoyance and to our merriment. Eventually we reached the front and dandered off, tickets in hand, to the Putney Road end in time to only miss the first 5 or so minutes of the game. Pretty good going I thought. We had Row A which wasn’t, as one would expect, the very front row. Seems that somebody decided it was a good idea to have Rows 1 to 6 before starting with the alphabet. Still, that’s a moot point and anyway the roof only provided cover from Row C back. That aside, they were still great seats right down by the pitch and we were pleased to see David Healy, Chris Baird and Steve Davis all making the starting XI.
After Bolton had taken the lead - almost unnoticed by ourselves - at the far end not long into the game, Fulham began to play a bit. Right on cue, Healy got the ball from a corner and swivelled sweetly and roofed one into the net about 3 or 4 metres away from us and then the wee champ did the decent thing and came over and celebrated right in front of us too. Alas I was too slow in getting the ‘No to The Maze’ fleg out, else it would have gotten a bit of exposure on Match of the Day but never mind, eh? Had I mentioned that it was raining? Well it wasn’t, it was absolutely tipping it down.
Luckily we were sort of prepared for the weather in that I had one of those disposable poncho things and Richard had a golf umbrella. Early attempts to utilise said brolly proved futile as there were howls of derision from behind each time it went up but after about 20 mins of the game, and after most of the ill-prepared ‘summertime’ fans smattered around us had ‘did one’ back up the stand to keep out of the rain (bless ‘em), we were able to put it up without reproach. Mind you, we probably looked like a right pair of clarets down at the front under a brolly but it kept us surprisingly dry – from the knees up anyway, there wasn’t much we could do about the new tributary of the Thames flooding the stands underfoot.
Just before oranges, Richard had absconded to the beer queue and left me by myself with the umbrella. Obviously I couldn’t just sit there and not fidget so I somehow managed to turn the brolly inside out, much to this fella behind me’s amusement as he started to throw a bit of flak my way. I don’t even know how I managed to do it. Still, I got the whole thing sorted out and after exchanging a few verbal pleasantries with my new friend, it was out the back of the stand for an over-priced and under-chilled beer. You would think that when charging punters a whopping £3.50 for a plastic bottle of Carlsberg that they would have the decency to ensure that they were cold but, hey, better a warm beer than no beer and it tasted pretty good anyway. I’m glad it wasn’t me who had to queue up for them but… (cheers mucker)
Getting back to the action and the second half was a much drearier affair, highlighted by a much improved performance from Chrissy Baird and, to be fair, not much else. Bolton tried hard to get back into it – and would have too, had it not been for a cracking fingertip save from ‘Denzel’ Warner in the home goal – but it wasn’t to be and Fulham held on for a deserved 3 points. So there you go.
The Fulham fans seem to have taken a wee shine to Mr Healy & Co. which was nice to see. The ‘Healy Healy’ chants were good to hear as well. Healy was really good in the first half and Chris Baird was excellent in the second half. Steve Davis – well to be honest we couldn’t even see him through the rain but by all accounts he was a contender for Man of the Match so I guess he must have done ok then, eh? The fans were all in good form leaving the ground and it was no surprise to us that most of the talk was about Sanchez, this wee man Healy and the new sense of optimism about the Cottage. It ain’t much fun walking out through that park in the dark mind – especially with a policewoman riding a 4 King rodeo horse through the crowd. Still, it didn’t kick out at us so who am I to criticise…
All in all, top night out and a great way to open the spectating account for this season. Roll on next Wednesday when the ‘real’ action starts…
Alan K
Special thanks to Fulham FC for the tickets
