Fulham 0 Southampton 0: Four-fingered Aaron Ramsdale earns Saints a crucial point in front of new boss Ivan Juric
AARON RAMSDALE returned from his fractured finger injury to produce a string of heroic saves to bag Southampton a precious point.
Ramsdale was back in the line-up for the first time since early November wearing a special glove with two fingers in one extra large alien-like finger slot.
It did the trick as the ex-Arsenal shot-stopper denied rasping shots from Alex Iwobi and Harry Wilson to squash Fulham’s hopes of soaring into sixth place, above Manchester City.
Incoming Saints boss Ivan Juric was sitting in the stands at Craven Cottage since 1pm with a thick black coat on and a cup of tea in hand, knowing there is a lot of work to be done.
After all the point was only Saints’ second in eight-matches in what has been a bleak season with former boss Russell Martin sacked last Sunday.
Fulham started brightly with Iwobi latching onto a pass from Josh King and curling a shot at goal which took Aaron Ramsdale’s fingertips to keep out.
Fulham 17-year-old midfielder King was making his first Prem start, starting alongside Tom Cairney having walked out at age 11 for the play-off semi-final against Derby with the Fulham skipper.
Saints hit back though with Adam Arsmtrong having a shot blocked in the box.
Fulham looked stronger but their plan of attack consisted with Robinson running the length of the pitch and sending one into the box.
There was the odd pretty passing sequence but no real end product, with Harry Wilson firing a shot over the bar midway through the first-half as only the odd clacker could be heard in the Cottage.
FOOTBALL FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS
Even Saints’ chants of “you’re support is f***ing s***” was strained before Iwobi livened things up again by cracking a shot just wide of the far post.
Fulham emerged from the restart with a fire in their bellies.
All Saints fans could do was laugh at yet another dismal performance, chanting “we’ve had a shot, we’ve had a shot” when finally they had their first one on target through Armstrong 55 minutes in.
Adama Traore came on an hour in and instantly made a difference, zipping down the right flank and firing an inch-perfect cross to Iwobi who forced Ramsdale into a blinding save.
Ramsdale was back again with another jaw-dropping save to keep out a rasping close-range shot from Wilson.
Traore almost won the game for Fulham late on but dragged his low shot agonisingly wide of the far post from the edge of the box.