Ryan Sessegnon marked his return to action with a goal, but Fulham were forced to settle for a point against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Craven Cottage.

The Whites bossed the opening 45 minutes, with Aleksandar Mitrović a particularly lively customer, but were unable to find a way through.

That changed with the introduction of Sessegnon in the second half, though, when he needed just seven minutes to display his predatory instincts.

But a vital win eluded the Whites when Romain Saiss tapped home a late equaliser for Wanderers which they perhaps deserved on the balance of play.

Claudio Ranieri made one change to the side that drew in Newcastle four days earlier, with Aboubakar Kamara taking the place of Tom Cairney who dropped to the bench, where he was joined by the returning Sessegnon.

A wayward Adama Traore effort was the only shot that arrived in the opening stages of the encounter, until Mitrović had two half chances from corners in the 10th minute. His first was bravely blocked by a gold shirt, while he glanced the second one a yard wide with his head.

Raul Jimenez showed great technique two minutes later to bring a high ball down in between his markers, before spinning and volleying towards goal, just clearing Sergio Rico’s crossbar.

On 17 minutes some neat work from Calum Chambers in the middle of the park allowed him to free André Schürrle to his right. He immediately cut back to Mitrović who took a touch into the box, only to skew his shot while under pressure from a closing defender.

A wonderful counter attack 26 minutes in yielded the first effort on target of the game. Positive running from Kamara ended with Cyrus Christie floating a cross to the far stick where Mitrović beat his man, but couldn’t get enough behind his header to overly trouble Rui Patricio.

The Portugal international was the busier of the two goalkeepers and he had to be alert again a minute later when Schürrle hit a low effort goalwards following a smart one-two with Mitrović.

It was a great spell of dominance for the Whites and we went even closer moments later when Christie drilled agonisingly wide from a very acute angle.

The pressure continued when, just after the half hour mark, Mitrović held off Conor Coady to collect Rico’s clearance. He bore down on goal but the Wolves captain recovered to get back and put him off balance as Mitrović pulled the trigger from the edge of the box.

Wanderers responded with a vicious Jimenez volley on the angle, that warmed the palms of Rico.

Mitrović had the crowd on its feet five minutes before half-time when he showed some wonderfully nimble footwork to send Willy Boly for a round of mince pies before slipping beyond Coady to go one-on-one, but Patricio made himself big and pulled off a fine save.

The first cards then arrived when Chambers mistimed his challenge of Saiss, who retaliated by pushing the Arsenal loanee in the face. Christie also ended up having his name taken for his role in the subsequent melee.­­­­­­

Wolves made a straight swap at the interval, with Ivan Cavaleiro replacing Traore.

The first chance of the second half fell the way of the visitors when Jonny Otto got to the byline and clipped a cross into Jimenez who connected well, but sent his header over.

Wolves had certainly upped the intensity since the break and Rico had to be alert to tip away Jimenez’s curling strike shortly before the hour mark.

They then made their second change as Morgan Gibbs-White made way for Helder Costa. Ranieri followed suit not long after when he introduced Sessegnon in place of Schürrle.

Sessegnon made an immediate impact as he got in down the left and managed to squeeze in a cross towards Kamara, only for a critical Boly intervention to take it off the Frenchman’s toes.

In the 72nd minute Kamara was withdrawn, with Club Captain Cairney taking his place.

Sessegnon was a menace to Wolves last season in this fixture when he opened the scoring, and he did likewise again with just over quarter of an hour to play. Wanderers failed to clear their lines and the 18-year-old smacked a ball through a host of bodies until it hit Coady who was a couple of yards inside the goal, causing Craven Cottage to erupt.

On 81 minutes Jimenez threatened an equaliser when he climbed highest to meet a cross from the left, but his header sailed miles over.

Ranieri then brought on Kevin McDonald for Jean Michaël Seri to protect his lead, while Ruben Vinagre replaced Jonny for Wanderers.

We were unable to keep the Wolves from the door, though, as Saiss tapped in after Joe Bryan inadvertently sent Cavaleiro’s ball across the face back the way it came while under pressure from Costa.

Mitrović thought he’d snatched the win in the final seconds of normal time when he poked the ball beyond Patricio after getting on the end of a fantastic Rico punt, but Coady did brilliantly to get back and hack it off the line.

A Saiss thunderbolt in stoppage time threatened to take all the points back to the Midlands but it flew wide, with the sides having to share the Boxing Day spoils.