Darth Vader awakes, Reserves draw and Collins John goes out on loan.

I'm very tired today. I was awoken at 4:30 this morning by Son number one complaining of a noise in his room. I stumbled down the landing to see what was wrong to hear what appeared to be a small frog croaking away. Now, I'm not a morning person at the best of times and 4:30 a.m. is not the best of times. My brain struggled to cope with what I was hearing. It couldn't be a frog. The sound was too repetitive.

... croak ... croak ... croak,
...... maybe it's the clock?
......... croak ... croak ... croak,
............no, hang on it's coming from the back of the door.

I closed the bedroom door and the noise stopped. I opened the bedroom door and the noise started again. A ha! The source was discovered. Ben's Darth Vader costume was hanging on the back of his door and the Vader breathing noise had somehow been set off and instead of what would have been the sound of Darth Vader waking Ben up in terror the battery had run down and sounded more like a frog but equally scary to a previously sound asleep seven year old.

To try and pull this all round to something related to Fulham, it all goes to prove that sometimes things are not all that they seem. Richard over at Craven Cottage Newsround has written an interesting piece about the comfort that can be taken from looking at the Goal Difference column. Last season, as I was looking for ways to make our situation seem less bad, I wondered if the league could actually be based on goal difference instead of points. Then, instead of people being so fixated on results the games would just be about scoring goals. In the end I convinced myself it was a silly idea, but I agree with Rich that it is a good indicator of how good a team really is. Still I'm not sure that’s going to help us in the next few weeks but I'm grateful for anything that can give me a bit more optimism!

Some news of interest to regular reader Shufty. The Whites reserves played West Ham United at Motspur Park last night and pulled off another draw. The Offal reports that the game was fiercely contested but Fulham showed a great deal of endeavour going forward. Under 18s 'keeper Neil Etheridge made his second start for the reserves in the absence of the loaned Brookes-Meade. Shefki Kuqi played just over an hour up front, but it was strike partner Bradley Hudson-Odoi who gave the Whites the lead in first half stoppage time. The West Ham website reports that Kyel Reid was their outstanding player, in a side that featured Nigel Quashie, Jonathon Spector and John Pantsil, and it was Reid's strike that levelled the scores in the second half. Both sites praised Fulham's Wayne Brown for another all action performance.

A very short statement on the Offal also confirms that Collins John has joined Leicester City on loan for three months. An interesting move in light of the suggestion that current Leicester boss Gary Megson could well be on the move to Bolton Wanderers. I'm not sure where we stand on getting a fee for CJ who is out of contract in the summer. He's still only 22 so we may be entitled to something, but I imagine our main concern will be to offload him from our wage bill in January.

Further to the Bolton Wanderer's vacancy, FulhamWeb are reporting that Chris Coleman has now met with officials from the club. I would be stunned if Cookie got the job but it would be very interesting to see how he got on if he did.