Fulham picked up another point in their quest to beat the drop following a goalless draw against Bolton at The Reebok.
Points shared after Reebok stalemate
Fulham picked up another point in their quest against the drop following a goalless draw against Bolton at The Reebok
The Cottagers set their stall out from the off and defended well enough throughout to just about deserve their hard-earned point.
Fulham came the closest to open the scoring in the first half with Leon Andreasen's long-range effort drifting just over Jussi Jaaskelainen's bar.
Bolton piled on the pressure in the second-half in search of that all-important winner, but Fulham's rearguard held out until the final whistle.
The Trotters stay in 15th place in the table on 22 points while Fulham are now four points adrift of fourth from bottom Birmingham.
With eight minutes played, debutant Brede Hangeland strode out of defence and found the influential Danny Murphy in the centre of midfield.
The former Liverpool midfielder clipped a delightful pass behind Bolton's defence for Clint Dempsey. The American beat the offside trap and steadied himself before striking a disappointing left-foot shot wide of Jussi Jaaskelainen's right-hand post from 16 yards.
Chances
But midway through the half Bolton fashioned two clear chances of their own. Firstly, Icelandic defender Gretar Steinsson produced an acrobatic volley which flew just over the crossbar before Danny Guthrie hit a low diagonal shot wide from 12 yards.
Shortly before the half-hour mark, Kevin Davis played in Joey O'Brien and his low shot was saved by Antti Niemi.
A dangerous cross from the left by Kevin Nolan then caused panic in the visiting defence but Fulham cleared the danger to ensure a goalless first half.
Bolton brought on Tamir Cohen for O'Brien at the break and the hosts quickly showed a marked improvement on their miserable first-half display.
Shortly before the hour mark, Steinsson showed impressive pace and no little skill to reach the right-hand byline and whip in a vicious low cross.
Scuffed
The ball reached Nolan and his clever back-heeled flick found Matt Taylor at the far post. Taylor stretched but could only scuff the ball wide as Fulham breathed again.
Bolton continued to probe, however, and in the 65th minute Niemi again proved to be alert to a curling free-kick from Guthrie.
Surprisingly, Guthrie was replaced moments later, taken off in place of Iranian midfielder Andranik Teymourian.
Within a minute of his arrival Andranik swung in a deep free-kick which Niemi failed to deal with.
His weak punch fell to Lubomir Michalik 16 yards from goal but the young Slovakian defender's first-time volley said agonisingly wide of Niemi's empty net.
Genuine goalscoring opportunities remained scarce as Fulham held on for a heard-earned - and potentially priceless - point.
