Charlton stopper Dillon Phillips pleased he could help the team after fine save preserves point at Fulham

BY LOUIS MENDEZ

Charlton earned a deserved point on the road at Fulham – although the draw would have been snatched away from them in added time but for a fine save from Dillon Phillips.

The hosts had twice come from behind in the game as Lee Bowyer’s Addicks impressed throughout but they nearly had nothing to show for their efforts.

Cottagers substitute Bobby Reid must have thought he had won the game for his side as he powered a deep cross towards goal but Phillips scrambled across his line to make the block and preserve his side’s well-earned point.

“Once that cross goes to the back-post and you know you can’t get there, it’s just about moving your feet quickly and getting across your goal and making yourself big,” explained the Charlton stopper, who has started every league game so far this season.

“He’s given me half a chance with it and I’ve kept it out. Over the moon.

“It was a good game for the neutral to watch. I think we really stamped our mark on them in the first-half. That’s probably one of the most difficult 45 minutes they’ve had at home. That’s what we set out to do. I didn’t really have anything to do in the first-half. A couple of bits at the end of the second-half. The boys have been great in front of me all year, I haven’t had much to do in any of the games. It’s nice to be able to help them out.”

Bowyer had switched to a back-three from the off to try and stifle Fulham’s potent attack – a move that paid off as the South Londoners enjoyed the better of the openings in the first-half.

Conor Gallagher’s goal meant that Charlton led at the break, before Ivan Cavaleiro levelled up for the hosts ten minutes after the restart. Macauley Bonne headed the Addicks back into the lead immediately but the lead was wiped out as Aleksandar Mitrovic scored from close-range – albeit coming back from an offside position.

“I heard it might be offside,” added Phillips.

“You’re going to get that. You’re going to get some and you’re going to lose some with the officials. It is what it is. You can’t change that now. It’s a good point for us and it could have been more.

“[The formation change] definitely worked. I think they might have made a couple of changes in the second-half just to try and counteract what we were doing and it took us ten minutes to get used to that. I thought we were excellent all over the park.

“I think we would have taken eighteen points after eleven games at the start of the season. There’s still things that we could improve on – we’ve lost a few games from set-plays. We didn’t concede from one today but we’re working on that all the time on the training pitch and trying to put things right. “

PHOTOS KYLE ANDREWS