Anyone who sneaked away hoping to jump the queue for the tube will be hugely disappointed, having missed our last gasp equaliser.
In a game that was always going to be low-scoring, it was perhaps predictable that the honours were eventually shared.
Mark Hughes kept the nucleus of the side that beat Wigan last time out meaning the bench, for the first time in a long while, had a decent look about it with Andrew Johnson, Damien Duff and Dickson Etuhu all pushing for a start after injury woes.
Carlos Salcido, given a promising pre-match build up by Mark Hughes, was prominent in the early exchanges providing a decent cross that saw Gera direct a header straight at Brad Freidel.
The defender then did superbly well to get in a block after Albrighton had provided a decent assist for Downing. Dempsey could have opened the scoring when one-on-one with the keeper but Gera will wonder how he fired over the bar from the subsequent rebound.
Prior to that a swift Villa move involving Bannan, Albrighton and Delfouneso saw the young striker fire inches wide. Just as it looked as if the stale-mate wouldn`t be broken before half time the visitors went ahead.
Bannan sprayed a delightful pass forward and Albrighton made no mistake sticking the ball in the back of the net.
The second half started with Bannan being as influential as the first half and Villa, to be honest, looked comfortable. Hughes threw on the substitutes but, despite lots of possession Fulham couldn`t make in-roads into the Villa defence.
In fact the Visitors could have gone further ahead but Schwarzer did well to save an Ashley Young header from a Downing cross. Just as time looked to be against us it was Brede Hangeland who grabbed a share of the spoils with a deft flick from a free kick floated into the danger area.
Relief all round! I just hope you stayed until the very end to witness it!
Vital Fulham on:
Vital Fulham on:
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