Fulham travelled to Swansea in positive mood after the rousing defeat of Liverpool, looking to extend an unbeaten run of three league games. But football has a horrible habit of bringing you back down to earth quickly.

With no Danny Murphy - the captain injured in the victory over the Reds – in his place was Simon Davies, making a welcome return from injury to feature for the first time since the end of June.

After the frantic pace of the Monday evening game, this one took a while to get going. Beaten just once at the Liberty Stadium this season, Swansea took the initiative and had a half-chance after five minutes, Leroy Lita heading wide from a cross from the right by former Fulham loanee Wayne Routledge.

Fulham’s first real advance came on 12 minutes, when Andrew Johnson was fouled on the edge of the area, but Clint Dempsey’s free-kick from 35 yards was blocked by the wall.

Five minutes later, there was a moment of panic in the Whites box from a Swansea free-kick. Scott Sinclair’s curled effort from the left edge of the box deflected wildly off Johnson’s head, but looped over the crossbar.

Fulham pressed in spells, but found the home defence resilient and difficult to break down. The same could be said of the Whites’ back line though, as the hosts were forced to resort to efforts from distance, a rasping drive from Luke Moore failing to trouble Schwarzer as it rose over the bar.

The Australian stopper had little trouble either scooping up a tame effort after a turn and shot from Sinclair on the half-hour – the closest either side came to breaking the deadlock in the first 45 minutes.

Swansea began the second period with purpose though, Lita firing an early shot wide, before some sustained pressure down the right. The dangerous looking Routledge fired three teasing crosses into the area in quick succession, two of which were dealt with by the Fulham defence, and the third claimed by Schwarzer. However, after leaping with Lita, the Fulham ‘keeper appeared to land painfully on his neck.

After a few worrying moments, and attention from medics, there was relief as he returned to his feet.
However, on 56 minutes the hosts had the lead. After Moore’s shot was deflected out for a corner, Schwarzer punched the resultant set piece away, but it was played back into the box by Routledge and fell to Sinclair, whose turn and shot deflected wickedly off Clint Dempsey, completely wrongfooting the Fulham’ keeper as it looped into the corner.

The goal sparked Jol’s team into life though and almost immediately Dempsey tried to make amends at the other end, playing through Bryan Ruiz one-on-one. But as the Costa Rican ran at goal, his low shot was stopped by Michel Vorm’s outsretched leg.

Johnson then narrowly missed the target with a rising drive from the edge of the box, before Dempsey forced Vorm into action again on 62 minutes with a bobbling low shot.

John Arne Riise too was agonisingly close with a venomous free-kick that rattled the goal support, and then Vorm was alert to rush off his line and deny Johnson who was free on the right of the six-yard-box.
But Swansea were not done either and on the counter, Kenny Agustien, only just introduced as a sub, saw a purposeful side-footed shot rebound off the post out of Schwarzer’s reach.

With 12 minutes remaining Martin Jol made two changes, introducing Kerim Frei in place of Mousa Dembele for his Barclays Premier League debut and, shortly afterwards, Orlando Sa came on for Simon Davies.

But before the two attackers could try and force a Fulham goal threat, Swansea had a chance to put the game beyond doubt at the other end as sub Fede Bessone found himself with plenty of time to beat the last man and fire a shot at goal, but dithered and eventually found Schwarzer too experienced an obstacle to beat, even from close range.

The game appeared to be going the way of the home side until the 86th minute when Frei made a teasing run into the Swansea penalty area and was tripped by Jazz Richards, prompting the referee to point straight to the spot.

Clint Dempsey placed the ball down, keen to make amends for his earlier own goal. But Vorm made a stunning save to deny the US star, diving to his right.

With that went Fulham’s last chance of snatching a point, as Swansea doubled their advantage as the game entered injury time, Danny Graham stretching ahead of Brede Hangeland to poke the ball in at the near post from a corner.

On the balance of second-half play, a 2-0 score line flattered the hosts somewhat, but regardless, Fulham would have plenty to ponder on the journey back to London, as attentions turn to the crunch final UEFA Europa League Group Stage game against Odense on Wednesday.
 

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