Facundo fires Fulham to victory

Facundo Sava unveiled an unusual goalscoring celebration after scoring what proved to be the only goal as Fulham beat Charlton at Loftus Road.

The Argentinian striker donned a Zorro mask after tucking home Dean Kiely's 36th-minute parry to put Jean Tigana's men 1-0 up.

But 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.

Fulham's Steve Marlet and Charlton's Shaun Bartlett also hit the bar in a cracking game which always promised more goals than it produced.

Robbie Mustoe was in Charlton's starting line-up after recovering from the side injury sustained during Tuesday's Worthington Cup humbling at the hands of Oxford.

For Fulham, who advanced to the second round of the Uefa Cup on Thursday, Steve Finnan (knee), Alain Goma and Louis Saha (both hamstring) were all still out.

Fulham started like a steam-train and were desperately close to scoring twice in the first three minutes.

First, Marlet met Steed Malbranque's left-wing free-kick with a glancing header which bizarrely cannoned into the far post, back onto his head and over the bar.

Then Luis Boa Morte scooped over a cross from the left and Sava's close-range header looped just over Kiely's bar.

Then Charlton should have taken the lead when Euell benefited from a lucky deflection inside the Cottagers penalty area but inexplicably chose to square the ball rather than shoot.

It was cracking stuff and Addicks' centre-back Mark Fish sailed close to the wind with 18 minutes on the clock, shouldering Marlet to the floor as he raced onto Malbranque's threaded through-ball.

The French striker did appear to fall rather easily however, and referee Jeff Winter ignored furious Fulham claims for a foul with Marlet racing in on goal.

Euell jinked inside Sylvain Legwinski and Knight in the 35th minute, but disappointingly curled his shot into van der Sar's midriff.

The first goal did arrive 60 seconds later, but at the other end. Malbranque had a pot-shot from 20 yards and Kiely pushed the ball straight to Sava, who scored easily from six yards.

He delighted Fulham's fans as he celebrated by pulling the Zorro mask from his sock, strapping it over his ears and racing to the crowd.

Van der Sar made an incredible blooper on the stroke of half-time, rolling the ball straight to Robinson.

He squared it to Euell, who, when faced only with van der Sar, saved the keeper's blushes by again declining to shoot and instead returning a poor pass to Robinson. He shot and van der Sar saved.

Euell's confidence, unsurprisingly, seemed to have evaporated and when the ball broke for him four minutes after the interval, he curled a 20-yard effort harmlessly high and wide.

However, the former Wimbledon frontman showed Charlton's exasperated fans he did in fact know what he was doing when he showed impressive strength to turn and shoot at van der Sar from the edge of the box.

The game exploded into a mass free-for-all in the 62nd minute, with Richard Rufus' accidental elbow on van der Sar, when challenging for a header, sparking an extreme reaction from Fulham centre-back Knight.

He and Sean Davis - his team-mate and flat-mate - were the main protagonists in the spate of handbags and seized hold of Rufus, Euell and Chris Powell. Ref Winter only penalised Rufus, dishing out a yellow card.

Bartlett then fluffed a glorious chance to level with six minutes left, Euell putting the South African in on goal but he incredibly hit the bar from 10 yards when it seemed easier to score.

And Van der Sar made a brilliant point-blank save from Bartlett's header moments later.

In a frantic finale, Kiely saved from Junichi Inamoto - and Brevett and Euell were booked as tempers flared.