Goals from Danny Graham and Jonathan De Guzman saw Fulham go down 2-1 to Swansea City at a damp Craven Cottage on Saturday afternoon.

Bryan Ruiz replied for the hosts but the Whites couldn’t find a way back into the match, despite a dominant second-half performance.

Graham put the visitors ahead when he gobbled up a golden opportunity after David Stockdale had saved from Nathan Dyer, before De Guzman doubled their advantage following a mistake by our keeper.

Ruiz poked home to half the deficit but the Whites couldn’t find that crucial equaliser despite putting the Swans under constant pressure for huge chunks of the second period.

Martin Jol rang the changes for our final match of 2012, with the Dutchman making six alterations from our 1-1 draw with Southampton three days ago.

Stockdale was handed a first appearance of the season in place of the injured Mark Schwarzer, while Aaron Hughes returned at the expense of Philippe Senderos, and Matthew Briggs was preferred to John Arne Riise at left-back.

Kerim Frei started on the left wing instead of Alexander Kacaniklic, with Giorgos Karagounis taking Chris Baird’s place in centre-midfield. Ruiz was also restored to the starting line-up, taking the place of Hugo Rodallega, who dropped to the bench.

Swansea made wholesale changes, too, with seven amends from the side that secured a Boxing Day goalless draw with Reading – most notably top scorer Miguel Michu missing out altogether through injury.

There was no sign of a lack of confidence in the Fulham ranks as kick-off approached, with each member of the starting XI embracing each other following the handshakes between the two sides.

The Whites started the game strongly, with both Sascha Riether and Briggs getting forward well. Ruiz was pulling the strings from his attacking midfield position and he won a free-kick in the seventh minute in a decent position 20 yards from goal. He took it himself and forced Gerhard Tremmel in the Swansea goal to punch away for a throw-in.

Fulham came within a whisker of opening the scoring on 10 minutes when Dimitar Berbatov acrobatically connected with a Ruiz corner. Our number nine volleyed into the ground and saw the ball bounce narrowly over the visitors’ crossbar.

The Whites were dominating the opening stages but the Welsh side were looking dangerous on the counter attack, with Nathan Dyer going close when his drive deflected wide on 14 minutes.

Stockdale had to be alert on 19 minutes to keep Graham’s poked shot out but the keeper could do nothing to deny the striker a minute later. Dyer hit a speculative effort that required a hand from Stockdale which unfortunately fell kindly to Graham, who made no mistake from six yards.

The Whites could well have been level moments after, though, but Frei fired wide from a tight angle after initially controlling the ball well. Fulham went close again on 26 minutes when Ruiz’s free-kick flew narrowly over after Frei had been fouled by Ashley Williams, before the Costa Rican forward volleyed over a minute later following good work by Riether and Berbatov.

Ruiz was by far Fulham’s most dangerous weapon and he drew a great save from Tremmel on 38 minutes. His left-footed curler was definitely bending in, but the visiting stopper got a good hand on the shot to tip it beyond the post.

Swansea introduced Sung-Yueng Ki at half-time in place of former Fulham loanee Wayne Routledge and the South Korean’s first act was to wrestle Karagounis to the ground 20 yards from goal. From the resulting free-kick Ruiz tickled the side-netting with a sublime effort – it was a positive start to the second period from Jol’s men.

It was all Fulham in the opening stages of the second half and Sidwell will perhaps have felt he should have done better when he headed wide from Ruiz’s corner. And so it was a bitter pill to swallow when Swansea doubled their advantage on 52 minutes.

Stockdale miscued his kick after Hughes played a pass back to him, smashing the ball straight into Hangeland. Pablo Hernandez collected before finding De Guzman in an acre of space who had the simple task of firing into the far corner.

The Whites tried to keep their heads up and called Tremmel into action once more three minutes later. A fine diagonal ball from Riether was cushioned down by the head of Berbatov and Ruiz volleyed goalwards only to be denied by the in-form stopper.

The Costa Rican’s name remained off the scoresheet for mere moments, though. A delicious cross by Frei was headed against the bar by Berbatov and Ruiz was there to smash in the rebound via Riether’s shins. Swansea claimed the German was in an offside position when it hit him, but replays showed the goal was correctly allowed.

The goal ignited the Cottage faithful as they roared their Team forward in the now torrential rain. Despite Fulham’s dominance, the Swans’ counter attacking threat remained and Stockdale couldn’t hold Graham’s shot after the striker had been played in by Hernandez – the slippery ball being smothered behind for a corner.

With Swansea well and truly penned back in their own half, Frei was next to test Tremmel, who did well to hold the Turkey international’s dipping volley. The Whites did have the ball in the back of the net on 69 minutes, only to be denied by the assistant referee's flag. Karagounis hit a vicious strike that Tremmel could only parry as far as Berbatov. Our top scorer made no mistake with the finish but was correctly ruled offside when Karagounis shot.

Jol looked to mix things up a bit with 14 minutes remaining when he introduced Rodallega for Ashkan Dejagah. Swansea, though, could have had the points sewn up a minute later when Graham was played in once again. The striker wrong-footed Stockdale with his shot which made the subsequent save even more impressive.

And it required an even better save from our keeper on 85 minutes when he tipped Ki’s goalbound shot round the post at full stretch. It was all Fulham from then on but we were unable to salvage a point from what had turned into a highly entertaining encounter.