Fulham fight back to draw 2-2 at Man City

Oct 25, 2009 - 6:49 PM By MICK ROBERTS STATS European Football Writer=

LONDON (SE) - Manchester City manager Mark Hughes admitted his side has wasted an opportunity to strengthen their grip on a Champions League place after squandering a 2-0 lead in being held to a 2-2 draw by Fulham on Sunday.

City looked to be heading for a comfortable win after strikes from Joleon Lescott and Martin Petrov, the Bulgarian's second in as many games, put them in control.

Two goals in six second-half minutes by Damien Duff and United States international Clint Dempsey earned Fulham an unlikely point.

Hughes said: "I am disappointed because we had an opportunity today because of the way the other results went but unfortunately we could not capitalise.

"It is disappointing because when you are 2-0 up at home you expect to see the game out.

"We allowed them back into the game almost immediately after the second goal went in and they fought back well.

"We did not do our jobs properly for their second goal because we picked out Dempsey as being a good header of the ball before the game and we left him unmarked."

City had won their least seven home games while Fulham had notched only eight away Premier League wins in the last four seasons.

The hosts thought they had opened the scoring in the dying seconds of the first half when Micah Richards headed home Petrov's corner but the effort was ruled out because of Gareth Barry's push on Chris Baird.

City did not have to wait long to take the lead as Lescott prodded the ball over the line eight minutes after half time after Emmanuel Adebayor had flicked Craig Bellamy's corner goalwards.

The match looked all but over when Petrov made it 2-0 seven minutes later, playing a neat one-two with Barry before curling in from the edge of the penalty area.

Fulham were back in the game in the 62nd minute as Duff fired a low left foot drive past Republic of Ireland teammate Shay Given from Bobby Zamora's knockdown.

Dempsey levelled the scores just eight minutes later with a bullet header from Jonathan Greening's corner.

The visitors could have even snatched all three points had Diomansy Kamara not put his shot wide in the closing stages.

Fulham manager Roy Hodgson, whose side held Italian giants Roma to a 1-1 draw in the Europa League on Thursday, said: "Things were looking bleak but the players kept going, played well and we got our reward in the form of two good goals.

"It was good resilience and the shape of the team is very good. Throughout the 97 minutes we did a good job and deserved a point.

"We have got a lot of injury problems at the moment but the people who have come in have done a wonderful job.

"It was a tough game against Roma on Thursday, not least psychologically because of the blow of conceding so late, so to come back from two nil down speaks volumes about the character of the team."