Shot-shy Fulham and Walsall shared the spoils but this dreadful goalless draw provided very little to write home about at Craven Cottage.
The visitors already looked bereft at the bottom of the Second Division table before this contest, but Fulham failed to take advantage of a strong start to move themselves out of the relegation dogfight. Clive Walker, showing some of the class he used to display regularly in his Stamford Bridge days, could easily have put the home side ahead in the early stages. He headed wide of Fred Barber’s goal when it appeared easier to convert Martin Pike’s cross on five minutes before supplying a lovely lofted ball that Mark Newson headed against the post.
Barber then made a superb close-range save to keep out Walker’s header after Ronnie Mauge had nodded Gary Barnett’s cross down into the six-yard box. But Fulham failed to build on that early pressure – allowing Walsall off the hook. The visitors struggled for much penetration inside the Whites’ half but Adrian Littlejohn did at least sting the palms of Jim Stannard with a low shot from 20 yards.
The Saddlers were much more ambitious after the interval. Neil Lyne almost opened the scoring with a clever back-header that flew fractionally wide of the far post within a minute of the restart. Alex Taylor volleyed wide from twenty yards midway through the second half and the visitors could easily have snatched all three points late on. Stannard stopped an angled drive from Stuart Rimmer with ten minutes to play before Kenny Mower played in Rimmer in the last minute only for the striker to once again see his shot blocked by the Fulham number one.
FULHAM: Stannard; Eckhardt, Pike, Marshall (Langley 75), Newson, Skinner (Elkins 75), Mauge, Barnett, Walker, Davies, Milton.
BOOKED: Mauge.
WALSALL: Barber; Dornan, Skipper, Forbes, Mower, Taylor, Littlejohn, Bremner, Ford, Rimmer, Lyne.
ATTENDANCE: 2,652.
