Andy Legg scored a bizarre equaliser for Swansea City at Craven Cottage this afternoon as feckless Fulham let a precious victory slip from their grasp in a grim battle between these two relegation rivals.
The quality of the fare by the banks of the Thames was poor, just like the abject finishing on display. To be fair to Swansea defender Chris Coleman, he is primarily employed to keep clean sheets rather than score goals – although that showed when the Welsh youth international hammered a shot from fifteen yards well wide of Jim Stannard’s goal after being alert enough to latch onto a flick on midway through the first half.
Fulham huffed and puffed but failed to produce much of note in the final third themselves – as if they were hungover from Saturday’s thrilling victory at Griffin Park. The hero that afternoon, Phil Stant, did superbly to strip Coleman of possession in his own box but then dawdled himself – refusing the obvious pass to the unmarked Haag and slipping a ball to Gary Brazil, whose rising drive was well saved by Swansea keeper Mark Kendall.
Fulham were much more ambitious immediately after the interval with Martin Pike and Brazil taking aim from distance and failing to test Kendall, but it took the home side only five minutes to break the deadlock. Stant again robbed Coleman of the ball and set up Haag, who unleashed a low drive that beat the dive of Kendall, and crept in off the far post.
But the Londoners’ left lasted only ten minutes. Stannard and John Marshall abdicated responsibility for dealing with Paul Raynor’s right-wing cross to each other and Legg nipped in to loop a header over the stranded goalkeeper and score his ninth goal of the season. That set up a grandstand finale with Fulham furious not to awarded a penalty when Stant went down in the box after clashing with Coleman and Swansea coming close with centre back Mark Harris’s effort bounced up off the wet playing surface – forcing Stannard to turn it over the bar for a corner.
Speaking to the media afterwards, Fulham defender Glen Thomas bemoaned ‘a missed opportunity’ to build on the momentum generated by the win at Brentford and pick up another three points but still backed the Whites to win their battle against the drop.
FULHAM: Stannard; North, G. Thomas, Pike, Marshall, Morgan, Onwere, Skinner, Brazil (Cobb 75), Haag, Stant. Subs (not used): Milton.
GOAL: Haag (50).
SWANSEA CITY: Kendall; Coleman, Walker (Thornber 75), Harris, Legg, Hough, Williams, Coughlin, Davey (Miller 62), Penney, Connor.
GOAL: Legg (60).
ATTENDANCE: 4,208.
