Johan Elmander, a £10 million striker signed by former manager Gary Megson, missed a glorious chance to ease the pressure on Bolton at the foot of the table.In an encounter devoid of many meaningful openings, the Swede was played clean through by Kevin Davies three minutes from time only to steer his shot wide of the Fulham post.
To add to Bolton's frustration, two minutes later Davies had the ball in the back of the net, heading in Chung-Yong Lee's free-kick, only for referee Mark Clattenburg to rule out the effort for a push.
Mark Davies missed the two best chances of the first half for Bolton while the visitors failed to muster a meaningful effort over the entire 90.
REACTION:
Owen Coyle was furious that Clattenburg had ruled out his team's late "goal" and claimed that video evidence supports his sense of injustice.
"Everybody in the stadium knew it was a good goal," he said. "Fulham players knew it was a good goal but there was one man who felt it wasn't.
"That leaves a bad taste in the mouth because it was clearly a terrific goal; a great ball in, the player's jumped well and won a clean header. I asked the referee his view and he said he saw Kevin Davies clearly pushing with two hands.
"I'd better leave it there or I'll get into a bit of bother. I knew at the time there was no contact. I've since seen the re-run and there is no contact that I've seen. The cross comes into the six-yard line and Kevin jumped up and planted a great header into the corner. But the referee deemed Kevin pushed with two hands."
Fulham boss Roy Hodgson responded: "I don't think you'd expect me to say anything other than it was a good decision. But I have spoken with Brede (Hangeland) and he says he was about to head the ball when he felt a push and fell over.
"Bolton put us to the test today, they had by far the better of the goal chances but we've been resilient. We've had an awful lot of bad luck recently, decisions and deflections, so if that was lucky, we have worked up to that."
At least Coyle had the consolation of seeing his team keep their second clean sheet in three games and dominate much of the game against a team far higher in the table.
"If we continue to play like that we will get results because there were a lot of positives," he added. "Any point is a good point in the Premier League but the galling thing is we should have had all three."
HOW IT HAPPENED:
Painfully slowly and tediously - for this neutral at least - until the arrival of Vladimir Weiss after 70 minutes. Manchester City expect great things of the Slovakian winger and it is not hard to see why. Direct, confident, audacious ... this kid is one to watch although Coyle clearly believes he is not quite ready to start for his struggling team yet.
That may well be a fair assessment, although it would have been nice to have found out first-hand. As it was, a couple of runs and shots energised his team and home crowd and set up Bolton for what should have been a win - and would have been without Elmander's miss and a disallowed "goal."
Bolton were affected in the warm-up when defender Gretar Steinsson was forced out due to illness and the re-shuffles continued throughout the game as Andy O'Brien also collected an injury but, with Kevin Davies his usual tireless self up front, Coyle does appear to have hit on a versatile midfield that can change on the fly - sometimes 4-4-1-1, sometimes 4-5-1, sometimes 4-1-4-1 - and he has added steel at the back. Chances are being created although the lack of a natural finisher is still apparent.
For Fulham, a virus kept out Bobby Zamora and injury forced Kagisho Dikgacoi off the field, requiring Hodgson to make numerous weird and wonderful changes of formation and personnel. He, as much as his hard-working players, earned his pay packet at the Reebok.
WHAT IT MEANS:
Bolton hover a point above the relegation zone - albeit with a game in hand on some of their rivals - meaning that this has to be analysed as two points dropped. Bolton continue to make steps in the right direction, but they are small steps and it is debatable whether they are sufficient to keep Wanderers out of what looks likely to be a tense relegation battle until the bitter end. It also showed the lack of a a natural goalscorer and the fact that, however rough his treatment undoubtedly was by home supporters, Megson's signing of Elmander was a disaster.
Fulham have negotiated a tricky game with a further point that now lifts them 10 points above the drop zone and, surely, means there are no concerns in that area now. Hodgson's problems are more to do with finding enough fit bodies to fulfill his team's intense fixture list which features league, FA Cup and Europa League commitments.
QUOTABLE:
"I would certainly have been all for goalline technology today!"
Owen Coyle bemoans the lack of a fourth - or fifth - official who might have allowed his team's "winner" to stand.
BOLTON 0 FULHAM 0
PLAYER MARKING:
Bolton (4-1-4-1): Jaaskelainen 5; Robinson 5, Knight 9, O'Brien 5 (Basham 64, 5) Ricketts 5; Muamba 8; Chung-Yong 5, M Davies 6 (Elmander 57,4) Cohen 5, Taylor 5 (Weiss 66, 6); K Davies 6.
Subs (not used): Samuel, Gardner, Al Habsi, Wilshere.
Fulham (4-4-2): Schwarzer 7; Baird 5, Hangeland 5, Hughes 5, Shorey 5; Greening 5, Murphy 5, Dikgacoi 5 (Etuhu 55,6) Duff 5; Elm 5 (Okaka 76, 5) Nevland 4. (Smalling 76, 5).
Subs (not used): Zuberbuhler, Kelly, Riise, Stoor.
ATTENDANCE: 22,289
NEXT UP:
- Bolton v Man City (Away), Premier League, 09/02, 1945 GMT
- Fulham v Burnley (Home), Premier League, 09/02, 2000 GMT
MAN OF THE MATCH:
Zat Knight (Bolton): Yes, Fulham's attacking desire and ability was limited but then their former centre-half was a key reason behind that. Knight read the game perfectly, barely put a foot wrong and was brave, strong and decisive when needed.
