Martin Jol shuffled his pack as Fulham welcomed back injury victims Mark Schwarzer and Mousa Dembele to the team for the trip to table-topping Manchester City. Dickson Etuhu and Chris Baird were also restored to the starting line-up with David Stockdale, John Arne Riise and Bryan Ruiz dropping to the bench. Steve Sidwell missed out through injury.

Fulham started brightly in the constant snow but could have gone behind after two minutes. An excellent sliding tackle from Etuhu fell kindly to Edin Dzeko but Schwarzer comfortably kept out the Bosnian’s tame effort. The striker had another chance moments later but his speculative volley promised no danger to the Whites’ goal.

The breakthrough came on ten minutes when Adam Johnson was adjudged to have been brought down in the area by Chris Baird. Sergio Aguero stepped up to emphatically plant the ball to Schwarzer’s left from 12 yards out.

The Whites were struggling to get a foothold in the game but Clint Dempsey had the home crowd worried on 14 minutes when his looping volley sailed over.

Mousa Dembele was at the heart of Fulham’s best moves and at the mid way point of the first half he found Simon Davies on the edge of the area but the Welshman’s shot was held by Joe Hart.

The game was coming to life as the half went on with Damien Duff the next to have a go at goal, bending a left footed effort just wide of Hart’s far post.

Any optimism Fulham had created though evaporated on the half hour mark as City doubled their advantage somewhat fortuitously. Adam Johnson’s cut-back cruelly deflected in at the near post by Chris Baird for an own-goal.

City were looking incredibly dangerous on the counter attack and it took a saving block from Hangeland to deny Dzeko a clear shot on goal after 38 minutes.

Fulham enjoyed a period of sustained pressure at the start of the second half as the sleet continued to fall. Unfortunately we only had Danny Murphy’s shot straight at Hart to show for it.

The second half was proving to be much more of an open contest, with both sides going in search of the game’s third goal, although the fluency of the game was disrupted on 59 minutes when City had to send their groundsmen on to clear some of the settled snow.

A penetrating run by Stephen Kelly just after the hour mark had the City defence backing off, but the move ended with the full-back poking his effort into Hart’s body. And minutes later the England number one was on hand once again to keep out Baird’s drive from range.

The groundsmen were re-introduced on 68 minutes, during which time Martin Jol replaced Etuhu with Bryan Ruiz as Fulham went in search of a way back into the game.

Manchester City put the match out of sight on 72 minutes after a surging run from Aguero resulted in the Argentine laying the ball off to Dzeko who had the easiest of tasks rolling the ball into the back of the net.

The goal seemed to take the wind out of Fulham’s sails as the home side proceeded to dominate possession until the 78th minute when we almost found a way back into the game. City couldn’t deal with Ruiz’s low corner and the ball bobbled around before agonisingly glancing against the post.

John Arne Riise, a replacement for Philippe Senderos, hit a fierce strike across goal as the game drew to a close but, as had been the case all game, Joe Hart was equal to the effort.

Riise’s shot proved to be the last chance for Fulham on what was a disappointing evening in Manchester.