Premiership: Missed chances leave it scoreless at Cottage

Fulham 0, Charlton 0 (result)

Missed opportunities were the order of the day at Craven Cottage, as Fulham and Charlton played out a 0-0 draw.

Jason Euell hit the post when one-on-one with Edwin van der Sar - and Louis Saha was guilty of a miskick when in a great shooting position.

The first half was disjointed, with neither side discovering the fluent passing football which they are capable of.

After the break, van der Sar almost scored a disastrous own-goal before making a world-class double-save to keep the scoreline blank.

Alan Curbishley had dropped Jorge Costa, who was joined on the Charlton bench by John Robinson - who returned after missing two matches with a groin injury.

Jean Tigana also revamped his starting line-up, dropping John Collins and Luis Boa Morte.

After a slow opening, a Steed Malbranque through-ball created the first opening for the home side. Lee Clark raced clear down the left wing, but as he shaped to shoot, Dean Kiely closed him down.

The Cottagers' plans took a blow five minutes later when Clark appeared to twist his ankle and hobbled off, replaced by Boa Morte, who went on to be booked for diving.

Euell then fluffed his wonderful opening when he tackled Andy Melville and advanced on goal. However, he could only hit the outside of the right post from 20 yards, when van der Sar was left totally exposed.

Malbranque fed Saha on the stroke of half-time, but the striker totally miscued his shot from his side's best chance of the match.

Van der Sar made a complete hash of a tricky Kevin Lisbie cross four minutes after the interval. The striker sliced the ball over from the right wing and the Dutch international keeper half-palmed the delivery onto his crossbar before gratefully gathering the ball at second attempt, right on his goalline.

Sylvain Legwinski fired wide at the other end before van der Sar redeemed himself with a brilliant double save from Jensen's 18-yard half-volley and Euell's follow-up shot, injuring himself in the process.

Kiely made a top-drawer save from an equally-impressive 25-yard Saha free-kick in the 76th minute, while Barry Hayles hit the side-netting after a storming run down the left wing three minutes later.