A stoppage time Tomas Soucek strike meant Fulham left the London Stadium empty handed on Saturday evening.
West Ham United had enjoyed the better chances, but the Whites would have been good value for a point after a spirited display.
It had looked set to end goalless until Soucek struck late, but there was more drama to come.
When Tom Cairney was clipped in the box, a penalty was eventually awarded in the seventh minute of stoppage time after a VAR review, but Ademola Lookman’s attempted Panenka was saved by Lukasz Fabianski.
Scott Parker was forced into one change from the side that defeated West Bromwich Albion five days earlier. The knock picked up by Mario Lemina in that fixture ruled him out, so Harrison Reed took his place in the middle of the park.
West Ham began the game in the ascendancy and had four opportunities in the opening seven minutes.
First a combination of Alphonse Areola and Ola Aina blocked Arthur Masuaku’s angled drive, before the Fulham ‘keeper palmed over Aaron Cresswell’s moving effort from the edge of the box seconds later.
Then a wicked Jarrod Bowen volley was heading in until Areola’s reflex save – one all the more impressive considering it had deflected off the head of Aleksandar Mitrović. Sebastien Haller clipped the bar with his header from the subsequent corner.
The Whites responded with a couple of half chances for Mitrović; a free-kick which he hit into the wall, and a poked effort wide at full stretch from a delicious Reed pick-out.
On the 20 minute mark, Cairney sent a teasing ball across the box that was just too far ahead of Mitrović. Parker’s reaction on the touchline demonstrated how good an opening it was.
Our Head Coach would have been much happier with the sequence that followed a few minutes later, his side sweeping up the pitch with a fluid move which culminated in Cairney delivering a lovely cross that Mitrović headed back across goal, but unfortunately wide.
The home side won a free-kick dead centre 19 yards from goal at the start of the second half. Cresswell thwacked a shot against the crossbar that he believed was diverted there by some Areola fingertips, but a goal-kick was the decision.
Black and white hearts were then in mouths when Bowen’s volley took a huge deflection off Tosin Adarabioyo to leave Areola helpless, but thankfully it spun wide of the post.
Fulham had put in an impressive performance, but it wasn’t until the 70th minute that Fabianski had to make a save, and then he made two in quick succession. First he caught Lookman’s drilled free-kick, before getting down well to Bobby De Cordova-Reid’s acute drive.
Former Brentford man Said Benrahma had been brought on by the hosts, and in the 89th minute he twice tried to catch Areola out at his near post. Twice he was denied.
After defending so ardently, the winner came in cruel fashion in stoppage time. A hopeful cross wasn’t properly cleared, allowing Benrahma to tee up Soucek to side-foot home. An offside Haller in the build-up going unnoticed.
Fulham heads did not drop, though, and some nifty Cairney footwork drew a foul in the box from Benrahma. After a VAR review, a penalty was given.
Lookman, though, did not get the purchase he wanted on his Panenka, and Fabianski was able to re-position himself to make the save. A tough one to take for the hard-working Whites.
West Ham: Fabianski; Balbuena, Ogbonna (63’ Diop), Cresswell; Coufal, Rice, Soucek, Masuaku; Bowen (72’ Lanzini), Haller, Fornals (72’ Benrahma)
Fulham: Areola; Aina, Andersen, Adarabioyo, Robinson; Reed, Anguissa (90+3’ Cavaleiro); De Cordova-Reid (82’ Loftus-Cheek), Cairney, Lookman; Mitrović