Print

Mail

wiki links

Fulham, Birmingham share the points

Caretaker manager Ray Lewington ended his spell at the helm of struggling Fulham with a 1-1 draw at Birmingham City on Saturday, burying the Cottagers further in the drop zone.

Fulham, who had manager in-waiting Roy Hodgson watching from the stands, failed to overcome their 5-1 Boxing Day thrashing by Tottenham and let slip a 1-0 first-half lead when Carlos Bocanegra's headed goal was canceled out just under the hour mark by a deflected Sebastian Larsson drive.

The draw has left Fulham -- who were reduced to 10 men late on when Hameur Bouazza was redcarded -- free falling further into the relegation zone after Roy Keane's Sunderland beat Bolton Wanderers 3-1. Fulham are now 19th in the league on 15 points.

The in-form Gary McSheffrey should have opened the scoring within the first five minutes for Alex McLeish's Birmingham after being played clean through a sleepy Fulham defense that was caught on a counter attack with only Antti Niemi to beat.

But the 25-year-old Blues winger squandered the perfect chance to take the lead by drilling his shot high into the crowd. The opener came just a few minutes later but at the other end.

The Cottagers' US defender Bocanegra connected with a Simon Davies inswinging corner to blast his header past former Fulham shotstopper Maik Taylor at the near post to give the Londoners the lead.

McLeish's men did not have to wait long for the fruits of their increased second-half labor.

Ten minutes after the restart, Fabrice Muamba found Sebastian Larsson on the left. The Swede's powerful low shot took a deflection off Fulham's Elliot Omozusi to stump Niemi and put Birmingham back in the game.
This story has been viewed 874 times.