Roger Smith, of the official Fulham FC website,joins the black and white army at the Reebok Stadium

SATURDAY was a strangely frustrating day. Just as I arrived at the Reebok, Radio 5 Live reached the Fulham game in their pre-match round-up. Unfortunately, the match summariser, Stuart Hall, was stuck in traffic - so no preview.

The frustration continued until 5 o'clock; but at least I got out of the car park quickly (more by luck than judgement). Heading up the M61, Stuart Hall came on to give his summary of the match.

He is something of a lateral thinker and not much of what he said made any sense to me (he referred to Sean Davis as 'a typical red-haired combative midfielder'). Stuart's final words were to compare the match to a cappuccino - all froth and no substance.

I could see what he meant, though I didn't entirely agree with him. I felt it was more a case of two equally matched teams cancelling each other out. Sam Allardyce has got Bolton very well organised at the back, and I was especially impressed with their right-back, Bruno N'Gotty. In fact, I would make both right-backs top players, as Steve Finnan had another truly excellent game.

Bolton marked our strikers closely, often putting three against two, so there was always going to be frustration in trying to get through them. We never seemed able to get that little spark, especially through the wide players, and I felt we played far too many hopeful high balls which the big Bolton defenders simply gobbled up and then threw straight back at us.

Our own defence did a great job, though we were a touch fortunate to go in at half-time still level.

After that the game was much more even, and in the last 20 minutes, with the Deadly Snake getting into promising positions, Fulham looked the

more likely to score. But I can't remember either goalkeeper being seriously tested in the second half.

Such danger as there was mainly came from dead-ball situations. For the second Saturday in a row, John Collins got a fearful thump in the face while standing duty in the defensive wall. With Ian Harte (the best taker of free-kicks after Beckham) at the Cottage next Sunday, perhaps JC had better wear a helmet!

There were positives to be taken from the game. The clean sheet was good; we have conceded only one goal in the past 3 games, and now have the 5th best defence in the Premiership. An away point is never to be sniffed at, and if we can keep picking them up and winning most of our home games, we'll be fine.

The negative, if there was one, was that the lovely flowing football, front to back, ofthe week before against Newcastle was missing. It was an oddly jerky display,especially in the first half. This was partly due to Bolton doing to us what we did to Newcastle: pressing hard and allowing us no time on the ball, especially up front. The way round that is often to use width and pace, but we didn't seem to be able to find either. As well as the 5th best defence, we have the 5th worst attack.

It was an odd weekend, with only Arsenal scoring more than one goal in the Prem, andthat mostly due to howlers from Fabien Barthez. The defence in front of him must beas nervy as kittens and amazingly, United have the 3rd worst defensive record in the Premiership (ok, and the best attack).

There was much discussion on the radio about the 'Phoenix League' idea and RichardLittlejohn, on the 5 Live phone-in, went as far as to suggest that we had seen 'Premiership 2' on Saturday and 'Premiership 1' was to be played on Sunday. WithFulham, Sunderland and Bolton having beaten Newcastle, Leeds and Man Utd in recentweeks, this is rubbish.

The whole Premiership is tighter than in recent seasons. If we had taken just a couple more chances, and thus won 2 of our 6 drawn games, as we could easily have done,we'd be above United and 6th in the table, which we would all think was wonderful.

As it is, with the season one-third over, we have only lost three games and aregrouped with Blackburn and Bolton in mid-table, which gives us a good platform to build on.

The frustration at the Reebok seemed to communicate itself to the supporters, andwe were pathetically quiet for much of the match - so much so that Bolton fans wereable to chant 'shall we sing a song for you?'. I hope the players realise our relativesilence was because we were nervous, not because we aren't passionately behind theteam.

Bolton is an easy trip for me and I was comfortably home by 9pm. I don't know whenmy next live game will be - certainly not this year, as all sorts of things crowd induring December. At least I can watch the Leeds and Man United games, part of anextremely busy month in which we play 7 Premiership matches. My forecast is that we shall then have played 20 games and probably have 29-30 points, which would bequite satisfactory.

Getting ITV Sport Digital for the Spurs game has so far defeated me, though I'm stilltrying (we're on cable and it seems impossible to marry the two). At least we shall have football on TV. Like most of us, I'm greatly relieved that the players strike wascalled off.

Having footy on TV might give me the chance to see Sherif-Toure Maman playing forLivingston. The African ex-Fulham trialist has apparently selected his shirt number forLivi and with his first choice of 10 not surprisingly taken, has gone for the highestnumber in Britain and will be wearing 91. Don't ask, I don't know either - but if I findout, I'll certainly pass it on!

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