Roy Hodgson praised his side’s character after Fulham came from two goals down to claim a point at Manchester City this afternoon.

Joleon Lescott and Martin Petrov had put City 2-0 at Eastlands before a fine strike by Damien Duff and Clint Dempsey’s header levelled matters. Hodgson was delighted with the point – and insisted Fulham hadn’t stolen anything from their bigspending opponents.

We gave another good performance. City are getting stronger and stronger and they have good quality players.

We have players injured at the moment so it was a sterling effort for the players to earn a point. We battled hard against a good side, defended well throughout, and the character of the team is outstanding.

After their goals we got ourselves back on track and started playing how we had for the 60 minutes. It looked as though the game had been settled but full credit to the players. I wouldn’t say that it was that clear in terms of chances but over the 97 minutes a draw was a fair result.

Hodgson also defended Bobby Zamora, despite the striker missing a straightforward chance in the second half.

He [Bobby] played so well. People who watch the game on TV will see the miss but he was magnificent. It could have been a crowning moment to a very good performance. I was very pleased with his performance.