Fulham 1 Blackburn 2

Upon arriving home last night I didn`t have the will-power to write any sort of match review!

I was totally gutted, my spirits were down and al lI wanted was the sanctuary of my bed. This morning, if I were to be brutally honest, I don`t feel that much better, it`s going to be a long day.

In my match preview, did I not warn of the danger that Jason Roberts posed?

Gutted, absolutely gutted!

With fortress Craven Cottage visibly crumbling in front of our eyes with three home defeats in something like ten days, those relegation fears are coming back to haunt us again.

This Saturday, the trip to Bolton, takes on even more significance, we need a result and anything other than a win could see us plummet even closer to the pack struggling at the bottom, but, no doubt, that dreaded away record will come between us and a sense of normality!

Returning to last night, Roy Hodgson chose to play Zoltan Gera in place of Bobby Zamora (does anyone know if Zamora was injured?) with Clint Dempsey playing up front alongside Andrew Johnson. Elsewhere the starting eleven was exactly as we`d predicted.

Things got off to a magnificent start when, with less than two minutes gone, Fulham took the lead. Blackburn`s defending was sloppy and when Danny Murphy headed the ball forward there was Clint Dempsey brushing aside the challenge of Ryan Nelson to shoot past Paul Robinson.

Fulham, were looking bright and it seemed that the early goal would allow us to score a second that would give us something of a cushion, but, the warning signs that Blackburn could be dangerous were always there. Stephen Warnock rattled the post with a lovely curling drive as a reminder that nothing should be taken for granted.

Sadly, as the half wore on, the game became a little drab with too many long clearances and too many moves breaking down. Perhaps the second half would deliver better fare!

But that was not to be the case.

Blackburn eased forward trying to get the equaliser and in the 69th minute it came. With the ball in the Fulham area the defence struggled to clear its lines and Christophe Samba flicked it on for El-Hadji Diouf to score from close range.

The goal seemed to knock the stuffing out of Fulham as it took several good saves from mark Schwarzer to keep matters level but even the big Aussie was powerless to prevent Blackburn taking the lead in the 86th minute.

Morten Gamst-Pedersen played a ball into the box and Jason Roberts, the man who we`d pin-pointed as the danger-man, shrugged off a challenge from Tony Kallio to power a shot past Schwarzer.

Game set and match to the visitors and suddenly that mythical forty point mark is looking a long way off!