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Aimee Lewis at BBCSport |
Fulham 1 - 1 Bolton
Damien Duff's second-half equaliser prevented Bolton from enjoying their first victory since the end of October.
Fulham dominated throughout but a resolute Bolton, who made two goalline clearances, seemed set to steal a win.
The visitors' goal came when Fulham failed to clear, allowing Gary Cahill to head down towards Ivan Klasnic, who turned and shot low from 12 yards.
But Duff levelled after a period of sustained pressure, shooting low into the left corner from the right.
Fulham had a few selection worries in attack with strikers Diomansy Kamara and Bobby Zamora injured, while Andy Johnson, who only started training again this week after recovering from a groin injury, was deemed not fit enough for the substitutes' bench.
It was later revealed England international Johnson had undergone an exploratory operation to get to the cause of the persistent pain which has been troubling him.
It was a lack of potency in the final third which ultimately prevented Fulham from ending up with three points.
However, credit must go to Bolton's stoic defending as the visitors, who remain in the bottom three, battled to avoid a fourth successive Premier League defeat.
In an uninspiring first half, Fulham only twice tested what has so far this season been a fragile Bolton defence, with Gretar Rafn Steinsson coming to the visitors' rescue on both occasions.
The Iceland international put his body on the line to prevent a certain goal as Erik Nevland unleashed a shot from four yards out in the 17th minute.
Five minutes later and a sliding tackle from Steinsson scooped the ball away from the onrushing Zoltan Gera, who looked set to test Jussi Jaaskelainen in goal.
With just over 10 minutes remaining of the first half Bolton went ahead after the home side failed to clear the danger around their own box.
Cahill headed towards Klasnic and the Croatian impressively controlled the ball and turned Brede Hangeland to leave Mark Schwarzer stranded in the Fulham goal.
The first half was marred by silly fouls, which continued into a second half that Fulham began with purpose.
But Bolton's defence - which had kept only one clean sheet in their last 18 league away games - initially held firm.
The alert Matthew Taylor headed away Clint Dempsey's goalbound effort from danger, while a reflex save from Jaaskelainen kept out Duff's low, curling shot.
Jaaskelainen was called into action again with an acrobatic save to halt Nevland's 25-yard strike.
But Bolton could withstand the pressure for only so long as Fulham finally levelled via the tireless Duff, who hovered out to the inside right and beat Jaaskelainen with a fine finish.
Steinsson had the chance to clinch all three points for the visitors but the defender, unmarked inside the box, headed wide in the final minutes.
Fulham manager Roy Hodgson:
"We were good value for the 1-1. If anything, perhaps we can be a little bit sad that we didn't get the second goal.
"It was on the cards, with two balls cleared off the line and Jussi Jaaskelainen made two fantastic saves.
"It's the third game in the week, we've a lot of injury problems and Bolton worked really hard for their point."
Bolton manager Gary Megson:
"As people (the players) they're terrific. The honesty is there and you can see the integrity.
"We had chances I would expect, if we were confident, we would score from.
"I'm sure everybody would have expected us to get nothing (from the game). We've got to use the result as a springboard to push us up the table."
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