Fulham - 3 (Saha 10. Clark 23. 59.)
Crystal Palace - 1 (Ruddock 17.)

Palace went to Craven Cottage with a single aim, to spoil Fulham's unbeaten run of 10 games. One more win would ensure that Fulham would equal Newcastle's record number of wins in this League. As things happened they moved on easily to that record, and now they can confidently move on to Reading's all Leagues record of 13 straight wins to open a season. Palace meanwhile is left to rue what might have been, and will have to desperately start looking for ways to turn their poor start around. As usual, all Palace fans who have watched the games over the start of this season can feel confident that the team will do just that, and we should all be looking forward to the next two home games.

Needless to say Fulham started by far the better, with a great attempt on goal coming from Louis Saha, his shot going just wide. One minute later though he made up for it. Fabrice Fernandes took a free kick which Saha met first time with a good header that left Alex Kolinko with little to do other than pick the ball up from the back of the net. 1-0 down, and the game was only 10 minutes old.

Palace though refused to give in, and it was only seven minutes later that we were awarded a corner. The cross came in, and in the resulting melee it was captain Neil Ruddock that squeezed the ball home from close range. We were back on level terms, and we had stunned the Fulham faithful.

Unfortunately the status quo was only maintained for little more than five minutes before ex-Sunderland player Lee Clark got into the act. Bjarne Goldbaek made a good run and then crossed for Clark to slot the ball home and restore the home sides lead, a lead that was never to be relinquished.

Close to half time Neil almost equalised yet again - not a bad performance for a defender! Unfortunately he hit the post, the trouble being that he did, literally, hit the post, not with the ball but with his body. We trust that Neil is all right; it would have been a spectacular goal had it come off. Neil though did come off, and new signing Andrejs Rubins replaced him.

The second half of the game saw little action to enthuse the Palace supporters, though another goal from Clark certainly pleased the Fulham contingent. First though came a great save by Alex to a ball sent goalward bound by Saha. Barry Hayles then made a good move that found Clark, and he made no mistake scoring his second of the match, and finally put everything beyond doubt. A 3-1 deficit is far too hard to pull back at this level.

A couple of good saves by Alex, and a few good moves from Tommy Black were insufficient to turn the game round, though they did save us from further embarrassment, and Alan Smith would have walked away from his old Club fairly satisfied with the progress that the side has made of late.

We can now all look forward to the games against Portsmouth and Grimsby before the tougher away fixtures at Bolton and Leicester.

Colin Pryce

Fulham: Maik Taylor, Steve Finnan, Kit Symons, Chris Coleman, Paul Trollope, Lee Clark (Eddie Lewis 80), John Collins, Bjarne Goldbaek (Sean Davis 67), Fabrice Fernandes, Louis Saha, Luis Boa Morte (Barry Hayles 55).

Substitutes not used: Marcus Hahnemann, Wayne Collins.

Crystal Palace: Alex Kolinko, Jamie Smith, Neil Ruddock (Andrejs Rubins 45), Hayden Mullins, Simon Rodger, Clinton Morrison, Tommy Black (Julian Gray 72), Mikael Forssell (Wayne Carlisle 72), Jamie Pollock, Andy Morrison, Craig Harrison.

Substitutes not used: Steve Thomson, Dean Austin.

Attendance: 16,040

Referee: Mr M Brandwood (Lichfield).