On this evidence the Premiership is another country for both clubs although Francis's team were well below

On this evidence, the Premiership is another country for both clubs, although Francis's team were well below full strength, a fact which explained their disjointed performance but hardly excused Fulham. After seeing their team dismantle Tottenham in the Worthington Cup, Fulham's fans were hoping to watch them pick up where they had left off and begin improving on a poor run of recent form in the League. Unfortunately, on a day of high, cold and blustering winds, it was difficult for either side to produce the type of football which has carried them to the fringes of the promotion race.These difficulties were compounded by the performance of the referee, Graham Laws, who produced his yellow card four times in the opening half. None of the offences appeared deserving of punishment.Fulham enjoyed most of the possession in the first 20 minutes but were unable to break down Birmingham's solid rearguard, behind which Kevin Poole exuded confidence. Even Geoff Horsfield, the hero of Spurs' destruction, laboured in vain until the half-hour mark, when a nifty shot on the turn flew over the bar. Within a minute he had escaped his marker, David Holdsworth, for a header which was well saved, after which he was cautioned for, presumably, dissent.Earlier Holdsworth had been booked for an unknown infringement, and he was followed by Gary Rowett and Rufus Brevett after the Fulham player had protested at the Birmingham man's foul in a brief confrontation.As they sensed Fulham's rising frustration, Birmingham went forward more convincingly and Martin O'Connor took advantage of a misplaced pass to hit a 15-yard effort, well saved by Maik Taylor.

Then, when a goal seemed inevitable, a Rowett cross evaded everyone in the six-yard box immediately before the interval.It did not improve in the second half. In an effort to enliven his sterile attack, Bracewell replaced both of his central strikers on the hour, bringing on Paul Peschisolido and Karlheinz Riedle for the luckless Hayles and Horsfield.Their arrival at least supplied some statistical curiosity, in that Peschisolido was playing against the visitors' chief executive, Karren Brady, who is also his wife, while Riedle, as a former Lazio player, had probably been grinning at half-time after hearing the latest score from Roker Park.Riedle, the second Fulham player, after George Best, to have been a European Cup winner, alas did not last to the final whistle and was replaced in a bruising finale which saw Darren Purse and Chris Coleman cautioned after an aerial challenge involving elbows. That made six yellow cards for the referee in all, an achievement which may have pleased him but nobody else.. BY THE end of the party, Wimbledon were playing with numbers. Five goals, scored in chronological order by players numbered seven, eight, nine, 10 and 11, horribly swamped a Watford side the arithmetic of whose Premiership salvation is beginning to seem complex indeed.

It was a triumphant note on which to end an uneasy week for the Dons. Word is that their self-styled governor, Sam Hammam, is at odds with the club's Norwegian owners. Essentially they, we gather, want to sell players; Hammam wants those players to keep the club in the big league. You would think that, in Hammam's mind, 5-0 on the field will equate to fifteen- love in the boardroom. Wimbledon, though, are the national champions when it comes to trouncing adversity. Their confidence stoked by a very presentable recent run of form, they wasted no time in getting the home fires burning.Only momentarily troubled in their own defensive third, the Dons were two up within 32 minutes. Both goals were the result of Alan Kimble's well-flighted left-wing corners. His first, after 15 minutes, found the meaty forehead of the returning John Hartson, but after Micah Hyde had scrambled the Welshman's effort off the line - Hartson, incidentally, was clearly piqued by a linesman's failure to indicate the goal as his - Carl Cort was on hand to drive the ball back in, leaving no doubt it had crossed the line this time.Having scored his ninth goal of the season, Cort was pivotal in his side's second.