Fulham grabbed a gritty 0-0 draw against Brighton & Hove Albion on Wednesday that lifted them out of the Premier League’s bottom three.
However, they needed help from the video assistant referee (VAR) who disallowed a second-half goal for the visitors.
After a dull first half, Brighton launched an early second-half onslaught and Adam Lallana thought he had scored his first goal for the club within minutes of the restart.
But it was chalked off after a VAR review for a seemingly innocuous handball by Danny Welbeck.
Brighton won a number of corners as they switched between longer balls in behind the defence and quick-short passing moves down the wings, with the home side seemingly unable to hold on to possession.
Lewis Dunk squeezed a header just wide and fellow defender Adam Webster had another header hit the underside of the crossbar on the hour mark before the Fulham defence finally started snuffing out their attacks.
Though the home side struggled to create many decent chances, Brighton keeper Robert Sanchez pulled off some fine saves to keep his clean sheet intact.
But the visitors could not convert their dominance into goals and the game ended scoreless.
The clean sheet was Fulham’s first since they beat West Bromwich Albion on Nov 2, their only other clean sheet so far this season.
“In large parts this season we have not given ourselves a platform and have been chasing games down. A clean sheet is massive for us,” Fulham boss Scott Parker told reporters.
The result lifted Fulham out of the relegation zone and up to 17th spot in the table on nine points after 13 games.
Fulham are ahead of Burnley, who have two matches in hand, on goal difference, while Brighton are 16th on 11 points. (Reuters/NAN)