The last time the two sides met Fulham were top dogs and Bournemouth were play-off pretenders.
What goes around, comes around, eh?
It somewhat underlines football’s cyclical brief that tables are turned when the two square up at the Goldsands Stadium, Dean Court that was, on Boxing Day.
The Cherries now have a backer willing to plough in a quid or two. Fulham had one in 1999, they still do, albeit it a different one. It isn’t rocket science. Buy the best available; build a team ethos along the way; and Robert is your father’s brother.
Eddie Howe appears to have cracked it on the South coast just as Kevin Keegan did to take the Whites to a 101 points and promotion to the second tier.
Although Fulham beat every side in a record-busting campaign that included Premier League Aston Villa in the FA Cup, they couldn’t get past Bournemouth.
The first match ended 0-0 at Craven Cottage in August, and although the Whites were all but home and hosed by the return, they had to settle for another share of the points.
One imagines Kit Symons might take that right now.
The man who would become manager made his debut eight months earlier after a 124-game career at Manchester City, and was an immediate hit by shoring up the back and scoring 11 for his new club, one shy of Roger Brown’s all-time record for a defender.
He headed home to put Fulham in front after half time, only to see the lead cancelled out by Jamie Vincent’s equaliser.
But the Whites scorer remembers nothing about the goal.
"I think for once it didn't come for a corner," Symons said, "they usually did. But I do remember it was a midweek game." Correct: a Tuesday as it happened.
Another Bournemouth goal would have made no difference to Fulham’s championship title: they won it by 14 points - but it made a big difference to the home side.
The Cherries were pipped at the post when they finish seventh on the same points as Wigan but denied the last play-off spot by goal difference.
Vincent’s strike also deprived keeper Maik Taylor of a 25th clean sheet in 46 games, which he augmented by four in the club’s 12 cup ties that season.
But after Keegan departed for England just over a month later, Fulham were stymied the following season by the ‘dustcart that followed the Lord Mayor’s show’ according to former director and club historian Dennis Turner.
Paul Bracewell was no King Kev, and it took another season before La Revolution draped in a tricolour flew from the Cottage roof.
