Sava dons Zorro mask to celebrate his Fulham winner

Fulham 1 Charlton 0

The Argentinian striker, who wore wolf masks to mark goals for his home-country club Gimnasia La Plata, unveiled the famous black headgear after tucking home Dean Kiely’s 36th-minute parry to put Jean Tigana’s men 1-0 up.

But home goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar almost handed the Addicks a comedy equaliser in first-half injury-time, rolling the ball straight to Charlton’s John Robinson.

He played in Jason Euell, who inexplicably chose to pass the ball back to Robinson rather than shoot.

Charlton were coming off Tuesday’s Worthington Cup humbling at the hands of Third Division minnows Oxford, while Fulham advanced to the second round of the UEFA Cup on Thursday.

The goal arrived in the 36th minute, when Steed Malbranque had a pot-shot from 20 yards and Kiely pushed the ball straight to Sava, who scored from six yards.

Sava delighted Fulham’s fans by pulling the Zorro mask from his sock, strapping it over his ears and racing to the crowd.

The game exploded into a mass free-for-all in the 62nd minute, with Richard Rufus’s accidental elbow on van der Sar. Fulham centre-back Zat Knight and team-mate Sean Davis were the main protagonists and seized Rufus, Euell and Chris Powell. Referee Winter penalised only

Rufus, dishing out a yellow card.

FULHAM: van der Sar, Ouaddou, Knight, Melville, Brevett, Legwinski, Davis (Wome 67), Malbranque, Boa Morte (Inamoto 64), Marlet, Sava (Hayles 74).

CHARLTON: Kiely, Young (Johansson 83), Rufus, Fish, Powell, Robinson, Mustoe, Jensen, Konchesky (Lisbie 66), Euell, Bartlett.

Referee: J. Winter (Cleveland).