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Andy Johnson
Warning: Andy Johnson

Johnson in fight to reach his century

David Smith, Evening Standard
12 Sep 2008


Andy Johnson has been warned he faces a battle to mark his Fulham debut tomorrow with a milestone goal.

The club record £10.5million buy from Everton takes on Bolton at Craven Cottage aiming for his 100th career League goal.

But centre-back Aaron Hughes fears the tactics adopted by Gary Megson's side could ruin his new team-mate's day.

Hughes said: "These games are always tricky, Bolton are a difficult side to play against. They're physical and they'll make it hard for us to get our football going."

Hughes takes heart, however, from the manner in which Fulham recovered from a shock defeat in their season-opener at Premier League newcomers Hull to notch up an impressive win over Arsenal and victory in the Carling Cup against Leicester.

He said: "If we stick to what we've been doing, we can get a good result.

"Our approach, regardless of who we face, is we want to play our own style of football. That doesn't change whether we're playing Manchester United, Arsenal, Blackburn or Bolton."

Hughes hopes Johnson's attacking abilities will help avoid a repeat of last term's appaling start in which Fulham won only one of their opening 11 League fixtures.

Buoyed by the passing game encouraged by manager Roy Hodgson, Hughes said: "We certainly showed in the last five or six games last season what we're capable of producing. We've started off not too badly this time - the Arsenal game was a big result - but it's important that we keep playing to a high standard."

Johnson gets his chance after recovering from the thigh injury that kept him out of Fulham's opening three games. He will probably play alongside Bobby Zamora with Seol Ki-Hyeon making way.

Despite scoring for Poland against San Marino on Wednesday, Bolton boss Gary Megson has decided against blooding loan signing Ebi Smolarek.

Megson wants the striker from Spanish club Racing Santander to acclimatise, admitting: "He wouldn't even know the names of some of our players."

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