Fan's view by Steve Battersby

AT 2pm it was announced on radio that Michael Ricketts would not be playing in the game due to a hamstring injury.

By 2.45pm the rumour machine was in top gear. Ricketts had been sold to Spurs for a fee of between £700,000 and £3 million plus players in exchange, depending on whose story you overheard.

Whatever the real outcome of this transfer saga, this game proved beyond doubt that to sell him will probably sign Bolton's Premiership death warrant.

Love him or loathe him, who else will score goals if he is sold? We ended last season with Bobic, Wallace, Ricketts and Holdsworth as our strikeforce.

All were goalscorers at the highest level of the game. Yesterday, we witnessed the unsuccessful efforts of Pedersen, Facey and Walters in their attempt to breach a shaky Fulham rearguard.

Pedersen's workrate, though admirable, does not disguise his profligacy in front of goal. The latter pair are simply unproven at this level. Any new striker may simply not have enough time to deliver the goods.

So what of the game itself? A rare clean sheet was reward for a sound defensive effort, although Malbranque will forever ask himself how he managed to sidefoot the game's easiest chance wide of an open goal.

Similarly, the strangely ineffective Gardner had done the hard work in rounding Taylor only to miss-hit his effort and allow Fulham to clear their lines.

It was Henrik Pedersen, however, who contrived to lift three excellent chances over the crossbar, the final one with a little help from the Fulham goalkeeper. How costly those misses will be only time will tell.

In selecting the man of the match, I drifted away from Anthony Barness, whose first half display was excellent, to choose instead another defender.

Ivan Campo produced a master class in defending allied to a faultless display in the art of distribution. His class is beginning to tell in a league where possession is nine tenths of the law.

Let us hope for a speedy solution to our transfer dealings and one where the big decisions made are for the good of the club on the pitch. In the long term this will benefit the club on the balance sheet.