Fulham 2 Bolton Wanderers 1

It was all optimism in the River Cafe before the game. The talk was of whether Andy Johnson could emulate ex Fulham heroes Geoff Horsfield and Brian McBride and score on his debut. The father and son I met before the Arsenal game were in there: the father told us that it makes a big difference if a striker scores on their debut, they've won the crowd over from the start, and are forgiven anything after that. Jimmy Bullard scored on his home debut I said. Doesn't count he said, Jimmy's not a striker.

In contrast the Bolton fans walking behind us through Bishop's Park were pessimistic. They told me that knowing Gary Megson he would probably play with Kevin Davies up front and everyone else back in their own penalty area. At the time I thought they were joking.

I can't remember a game like it at Fulham for years. I renewed my season ticket three years ago (having let it lie fallow for 20 years) and they have been three years of toil and struggle. But today the sun shone and Fulham played like Brazil. We could have had five in the first half and four in the second. Zamora span a defender on the edge of the area and cracked it in to put us two up. 'Goal of the month' said the bloke next to me. Gera was intelligent on the left flank. Johnson chased everything and looked a right handful. We were totally in control.

Bolton did what their fans said they would. One up front: Kevin Davies. Five in midfield. Gardner sometimes drifted wide on their left, but opposite him O'Brien always stayed narrow so they had no width on the right. They looked devoid of inspiration and only threatened from set pieces.

The crowd were cheering Fulham touches with Oles from early in the second half. We were strolling. The man behind me said that Bolton looked as bad as Fulham had been under Sanchez. His neighbour asked him to refrain from mentioning that man's name. I was reminded me of a moment before one of those crucial relegation battles late last season. We were sitting in the River Cafe. A man turned to his wife and said to her 'you're worse than Lawrie Sanchez you are'. The whole cafe suddenly fell silent, wondering what this poor lady had done to deserve the slur (put sugar on his chips?).

I couldn't help thinking of Sanchez while Fulham were stroking it around today, and about the transformation Hodgson has wrought. We've gone from the ridiculous to the sublime, from the sluggishness of Chris Baird to the athleticism of John Pantsil, from Kamara and Healy to Zamora and Johnson, from hoofing to passing, losing to winning, scowling to smiling, dreading to dreaming. But like Yin and Yang, black and white, good and evil, there would have been no Hodgson without Sanchez.

Kevin Nolan clattered into Bullard three quarters of the way through the game, Bullard was down long enough to recall the horrible injury that took him away from us for 18 months, prompting the crowd to run through the whole of the repertoire of Jimmy Bullard songs for most of the rest of the game. Johnson and Zamora got thunderous standing ovations when they were substituted. Bolton got a goal back near the end, but the feared travesty of justice didn't materialise.

In the crush of people waiting to be let into Putney Bridge station I heard a man talking hungarian. I guessed they had come to see Zoltan Gera. Turns out they are Ferencvaros fans. Ferencvaros, Gera's old club, are by far the largest team in Hungary. Their ground is on Ulloi Ut, the main road into Budapest from the east, and a road famous in Hungarian history for the pitch battles fought there when Soviet tanks entered the city from the east in 1956. I didn't realise what bad times they had fallen on, the guy told me that they had been relegated out of the Hungarian top flight, and stuck down there for a few years now. And to cap it all they have been bought as a feeder club for Sheff United. No disrespect for Sheff Utd but.... He told me that Sheff United have sent their second team coach, Bobby Davison to manage them. Again no disrespect, I remember him as a decent enough striker for Derby in the 80s, and I guess the mighty magyars of 53 are too old or too dead, but....

I asked a Bolton fan what he thought of the game. He speculated on how long Megson might have left as Bolton boss. 'Some of our fans were shouting Megson out at the end but others where defending him by singing that stupid ginger mourinho song - he is no way a Mourinho.' He spoke about the money they wasted on Heider Helgueson, how all their three strikers were clones of each other, big strong and slow, and how the most of expensive of them, Elmander, is out for six weeks. No pace and no creativity. He said he would take Allardyce back tomorrow, and reminisced about the days of Okocha, Jourkieff and Anelka.

Finally, waiting outside the turnstiles to the toilets at Wimbledon station I met the guy who used to sit behind me at Fulham, and whose 'this is toilet' comments somehow helped make the Sanchez months bearable.

Me (gushing) Weren't we brilliant
Him (not cracking a smile): 'Shouldn't have let them have that goal. Should have had the game out of reach well before that
Me: We had loads of chances though, we hit the bar, had a goal disallowed, penalty appeal turn down
Him: No use having chances if you don't take them'.
Me: It takes a lot to please you
Him: Yeah he said. Don't forget I've been watching Fulham season after season he said.

A hard bitten fans can spot a fair weather one when he sees one. Which reminds me, I forgot to tell the Ferencvaros fan I was a teenage armchair Honved fan.

Fulham 1 Arsenal 0

First home game of the new season. Like going back to school. Checking out old haunts, seeing familiar faces.

First stop the River Cafe, straight opposite Putney Bridge station. A great place for pre-match gossip. The gossip whets your appetite for the game at the same time as the pie and two veg satisfies the inner man. The gossip doesn't have to be true, it just has to be interesting.

There are a couple of fellas, father and son who I often see in there before home games. Here is how our conversation went:

The father: I don't rate Roy Hodgson
Me (suprised): He did an amazing job last season, I don't think Jose Mourinho could have kept the dross Sanchez left us with in the premier league
Father: It wasn't Hodgson. He'd lost it, he was crying after we lost to Sunderland. For the last three games Murphy and McBride took over the dressing room. At half time in the Man City game Danny Murphy gave the team talk. I've heard it from within the club. He told them they were going down that afternoon if they didn't pull their finger out. Thats why when Kamara got the winner he ran straight over to Murphy. And that is why Murphy is captain now.

At the ground we have moved seats. Not by far, up a bit and along a bit, block CL to block B, but we have crossed the great divide from Johnny Haynes lower to Johnny Haynes upper. Johnny Haynes lower was the old enclosure terrace, it has a shallow slope, and the new seats were put over the terracing four years ago. Johnny Haynes upper is much steeper, you get a great perspective on the game. The wooden seats are the original ones that were put in when the stand was built in 1905, and are the oldest in the premier league. My son admired the way these seats don't flip back when you stand up, they just stay there. I guess they wouldn't have lasted 103 years if they flipped up every time a Fulham fan stood up in anger (or joy).

Last season Arsenal came and wove pretty patterns all around Fulham. The game was over after half an hour, Adebayor had risen twice around the penalty spot to crack two identikit headers into the lower bottom corner, both after twenty seven pass moves.

Arsenal's midfield four that day were Hleb, Fabergas, Flamini and Rossicky. Two of them left over the summer, the other two of them were injured so this time they had to play Walcott, Denilson, Eboue and Nasri. No comparison. Walcott is still a kid. Nasri has only played one premiership game. Denilson isn't the finished article and Dave (a colleague with an Arsenal season ticket) describes Eboue as 'a traffic cone of a player who can't pass properly'. It was a good day to play them.

Before the game I wondered if Fulham would go back to five in midfield, as most teams do against top four sides. In last week's defeat against Hull reports said that we were outmuscled in midfield, and that Bullard and Murphy in the middle weren't able to offer any protection for the defence. But no, Hodgson stuck to his guns, we played 4-4-2 same as they did.

Fulham started well, with some nice interpassing.

Early on Van Persie missed a good chance (I missed it too, my son needed a wee). On our way back we stood at the top of the stairs to see a Fulham corner which someone bundled in. After the match a TV replay showed that it was all 6 foot five of Brede Hangeland, flying at the ball feet first like Eric Cantona flew into that Palace fan all those years back.

Adebayor, just like last season, rose at the penalty spot and got power and direction into a header, but this time it came back of the post.

Arsenal's big players drifted in and out of the game, there were twenty minute periods when I forgot Nasri was playing, forgot Adebayor was playing, forgot Walcott was playing. It was Walcott that the Arsenal fans I spoke to afterwards were most disappointed with- he was up against debutant Fulham left back Tony Kallio who was standing in for Paul Konchesky, but Walcott didn't seem to want to test Kallio out.

When Wenger brought a third striker on, Nicholas Bendtner, with twenty minutes left Robin Van Persie looked around at his team mates and shrugged his shoulders, wondering where he was going to play. A sign that all wasn't well (they stuck him out on the right side of midfield).

Fulham retained a good share of possession until the last ten minutes, when it became backs to the wall time.

Murphy, as well as his usual precision passing, was a tiger in midfield, making lots of key challenges and interceptions. Bullard seemed to play a more disciplined game than at times last season, not straying too far, and hardly misplacing a pass all day.

Zamora did a great job in his home debut as centre-forward playing with his back to goal, staying central, holding the ball up, bringing the midfield into it. Soeul Ki-Hyun drifted off him and had a decent game, he got a nice ovation at the end which will help him: he was a Sanchez signing and the crowd have got at him, which is hard on someone like him who needs confidence to play. True neither Soeul or Zamora looked like scoring on their own account, but once Andy Johnson's pace and finishing power are added to Zamora's hold up play we will have a side worth watching.

At the end the Fulham players all stood in the centre circle and waved at the crowd, and pointed bemused at our new full back John Pantsil, who was sprinting round the touchline, as fresh as a daisy, a solo high speed lap of honour to milk the applause.

Hodgson has been with Fulham for eight months now, and the club have got better every month. Whether it is him or Danny Murphy, someone is doing a good job.

Cut off your hands

I went to a gig in my lunch break yesterday (a career first). Cut off your hands played a twenty minute set at Pure Groove record shop in Smithfield.

I got there five minutes before the gig started. The shop was open as normal, it was just busier than usual. (I'm often the only person in there at lunchtime).

I stood at the front and looked at the speakers, amps and drumkits. A person behind me said that with all that equipment the gig would be deafening in the small record shop. He was right, my ears are still aching 30 hours later.

There were about 30 people there, swelling to about forty by the time the gig started.

As you can see from the pic they are a four piece indie guitar band. Young fellas from New Zealand. Nice to listen to, quite melodic, check it out on My Space, there is nothing not to like about it. The singer was energetic and had a couple of drums of his own to bang away at various points.

They were the politest band you could ever see. The singer thanked the audience for sharing their lunchtime with him. After the gig I spoked to their bass guitarist, who was browsing Pure Groove's wall of the 100 CDs and records they have selected to sell. He said they have come over to live in London because they have signed to a UK record label. I naively asked whether they had thought of signing to a New Zealand label. He said that there wasn't any decent labels in NZ and they always knew they would have to move to the US or the UK (they weren't bothered which one of the two).

The band haven't had a day off for 2 months. They have been either playing a gig or travelling to one. I asked him how he coped with that. He said that when they had a similar workload on their Australian tour they all ended up really sick (but that was partly because people wanted to party with them after the gigs).

Then he had to go and pack up his stuff because they were playing a gig in Portsmouth in the evening. I've looked at their tour schedule: it seems like they are playing every University in Britain over the next month.

Lunchtime just got better (but more expensive)

Smithfield is within the jurisdiction of the City of London, but outside of the old City walls. It is the furthest that Wat Tylor and the Peasants Revolt reached in 1381 and the furthest that the Great Fire of London got in 1666. And now it plays host to what is probably the City's first and only independent/alternative record shop.

Its called Pure Groove. I got a very pleasant suprise when I walked through Smithfield this Monday luncthime and saw it.

It is a big shop but it only sells 100 titles at any one time. They pick the 100 CDs that they are really into and display them over on one wall. They change the selection every week. It is a great idea: less is more. I will end up going in the store just to find out is in their 100.

They used to be in Archway (North London) but moved to Smithfield in June this year because they could have extra space for instore gigs. The benefit of only selling 100 titles is that it leaves the rest of the store clear for gigs, art exhibitions and installations.

I've been there every lunchtime since I found it. I've bought We'll drive home backwards by Cocosuma and Love, ire and song by Frank Turner. Very happy with both. I felt my age when I read Pure Groove's description of Frank Turner as 'a modern Billy Bragg'.

Here is a video of one of their instore shows: the Virgins. My favourite bit is 5 minutes into the video when they take the band over to the 100 wall and the band comment on the selection and on the other bands represented in it


And here is Frank Turner's instore there:

Fulham 3 Celtic 1 (friendly)

In Bishop's Park there is a monument to the men and women from Hammersmith and Fulham who voluntarily went to Spain in 1936 and died in the fight against fascism. I took my son to read the inscription the first time I took him to a Fulham game, but it is usually ignored by home and away fans alike as they stroll to and from matches. So it made a pleasant change today to see a group of Celtic fans pay their homage by standing at the monument after the match and singing some freedom songs from the Irish folk tradition. It made me think how nice it would be to have a friendly against Barcelona (or a Champions League tie, whatever).

Most of Fulham's new signings played at least a half: Bobby Zamora scored with a volley, Zoltan Gera played out on the right wing and showed some subtle touches, John Pantsil played at right back and impressed my daughter with his pink football boots. David Stockdale played in goal and did OK apart from a bizarre moment when he carried the ball out of the penalty area and the referee Steve Bennett kindly waived play on. Tony Kallio came on at left back in the second half and looked tall, lanky, awkward, rangy and difficult to play against - I liked him.

There were patches when Celtic played the ball about well but Fulham were comfortable. Jimmy Bullard looked sunburned and his famous shaggy hair has received some serious attention from a hairdresser with a peroxide look. He was his typical positive, creative but imprecise self. His passing was all awry today but he still seemed to be at the heart of our best stuff in the first half. The Celtic fans jeered him when he fell over the ball in their box and when he put a free kick into orbit over their goal. I'm not used to him getting that sort of treatment - he's one of those rare players even opposition supporters normally like (apart from Bolton fans who don't like his old club Wigan).

Danny Murphy came on with his precise passing, a cut above anyone else's. The best moment of the match was when he chipped a corner direct to Leon Andraeson, unmarked at the edge of the box who smashed a volley into the net.

The Celtic fans were the star of the show, there must have been 12 or 13 thousand of them, they had three quarters of the ground, they made a fearsome noise, and were very friendly.

On the way back I got chatting with a guy who lives in Dover, and belongs to the Folkestone branch of the Celtic Supporters club . He told me they wanted to paint green hoops across the white cliffs of Dover but they couldn't do it because of health and safety considerations.

Anna gives her horse a name

Anna (age 6): holds up her Nintendo DS to show a gleaming white horse : What jewel does this horse looks like mummy?
Tania (age 39): I think it looks like a pearl
Anna: I am going to call it pearly. How do you spell it mummy?
Tania: p-e-a-r-l-y
Andrew : (age 9) No, you don't spell it like that! (runs and gets his London A-Z. Points to a train station in South London.) Look! This is how you spell it!
Anna: typing the name of the horse into her DS : p-u-r-l-e-y

The DFC

The first issue of the DFC arrived on our doorstep last week. I can't believe how good it is. 36 pages long with no adverts. The drawing is beautiful, the comic looks and feels special, the stories are funny, suprising and different from each other.

My wife, my nine year old son and me have read it cover to cover . My 6 year old has had half of it read to her and wanted the other half read to.

It is the first weekly comic launched in Britain for 25 years. All the other comics for the 6-12 age group have played safe, made themselves monthly and based themselves around a big TV or film tie-in. But monthly serials don't work because you forget the cliff-hanger by the time the next issue comes round. The only tie-in DFC has is with the family section of the Guardian on a Saturday.

If you haven't seen it yet it is because it not available in the shops: it costs £3 per issue, available only from the DFC website.

Forbidden Planet have given the DFC a gracious review, even though they must be disappointed that they can't sell the comic themselves. In a perfect world it would be available in newsagents, so that kids could stumble upon it by chance. This way they are dependent on their parents to buy it. But Rome wasn't built in a day, this model allows DFC to start up with a relatively small audience. Who knows where they will be in a years time?

Besides I like the print on demand model they operate where it doesn't get printed until someone orders it (it contrasts with the print-without-demand of all those free newspapers they give out at London stations).