Anyone know what Danish is for ‘sicknote’? Claus Jensen should have earned the dubious moniker during his time with Fulham.

This game turned out to be a rare triumph for a midfielder who retired after a succession of injuries at the end of the season.

He scored what turned out to be the winner against his old club, and in the last time they met in a league match when both were top flight.

For the record, the season before ended 2-1 to the Whites as well. Kit Symons will take that Friday night.

Heidar Helguson

And for fans of Heidar Helguson, he also features in our QPR retro piece this week as does Luke Young. Both were to become Rangers with varying degrees of success.

And if ever a game underlined football’s merry-go-round, former Chelsea striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was then with the Addicks and went close to opening the scoring in the first half.

Darren Bent became a White on loan from Aston Villa last season, and Wayne Routledge had two spells with Hoops before moving on to Newcastle and Swansea.

The first scorer currently sits on the five-man committee chosen to decide Fulham’s new manager, and netted a pearler with a sweet 20-yard half-volley just past the hour.

Life of Brian: McBride scores against Charlton

After Brian McBride’s belter, Jensen raced through two minutes later and made it 2-0. They held on despite Bent's neat finish 10 minutes after that.

Charlton had the better of the first period, and should have gone ahead through Dennis Rommedahl - there was a heavy Nordic tinge to the game - but Fulham were a different proposition after the break, with manager Chris Coleman damning Jensen’s virtues with faint praise.

"Claus has come on and scored a fantastic goal to win a game and he has worked hard for that on the training ground,” added Coleman.

"Since we have had him we have not had a run of 10 or 15 games for him to come in and get his fitness but for someone with his talent he has more than enough ability to play in the Premiership and that will give him confidence.”

Boss men: Iain Dowie embraces Chris Coleman at the end

Charlton manager Iain Dowie had previously bossed Hoops in a caretaker capacity and returned in 2008 for all of 15 games.

"We are in a dark time at the moment and we have to swing hard towards the light,” said he after this latest setback.


And for all those who don’t believe football is cyclical, Charlton were rock bottom at the time, and Fulham moved into the top half.

Check the current Championship table.

Fulham: Antti Niemi, Ian Pearce, Zat Knight, Liam Rosenior, Franck Queudrue, Wayne Routledge (Moritz Volz 79), Michael Brown, Papa Bouba Diop (Carlos Bocanegra 81), Heidar Helguson (Claus Jensen 58), Brian McBride, Tomasz Radzinski

Charlton: Scott Carson, Luke Young, Souleymane Diawara (Matt Holland 79),Talal El Karkouri, Hermann Hreidarsson, Bryan Hughes (Marcus Bent 72), Amdy Faye, Andy Reid, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (Jerome Thomas 72), Darren Bent, Dennis Rommedahl

Keep up to date with all the build-up, matchday and post-game reaction to Fulham v Charlton right here on GetWestLondon