Match Report: Fulham 1 - Birmingham City 1

Fulham tied Birmingham City at 1-1 during their clash earlier at Craven Cottage today.

The Cottagers found themselves 1-0 up in the 5th minute when Hugo Rodallega tapped in a shot which was assisted by a sweet pass from Lasse Vigen Christensen. But unfortunately, things took a sudden downfall when Birmingham City managed to equalise in the 14th, from David Cotterill's nice curled free kick effort.

The game got off to a decent start, with Fulham creating a couple of chances in the first minute of the game, with neither unfortunately leading to anything. However, this pace paid off, when Hugo scored to make it 1-0, recieving the ball from LVC, who passed from the edge of the box.

Birmingham midfielder David Davis (nice name!) had a chance on goal in the 12th minute, and tried to curl the ball into the top right corner of the net, but this shot was luckily deflected, leading to a corner, which Johnathan Grounds managed to recieve, his header going wide of the far post. Unfortunately for Fulham, City brought the game to 1-1 in the 14th minute, when Jazz Richards conceded a free kick close to the box, which David Cotterill's curled effort sailed in near the far post, sneaking past everyone on its way.

This goal brought City's attacking pace up throughout the whole game, with Davis forcing Bettinelli into action in the 21st, but luckily the keeper didn't have too much trouble catching the 20-yard shot.

The Cottagers had a few chances for the rest of the half. Konstantinos Stafylidis crossed over to the far post where Ross McCormack was waiting to launch a header toward the back of the net, but unfortunately City keeper Darren Randolph managed to save easily.

A really close miss came from the Blues around the half hour mark, when Stephen Gleeson's long ball through managed to find Clayton Donaldson in the box, however his finish caused the shot to miss by just a couple of yards.

Bettinelli again managed to punch away an almost certain goal in stoppage time as Cotteril's set piece strike almost dipped into the net, but the Fulham keeper's reflexes came in handy.

The second half got off to an interesting start, with City definitely trying to put their all in and force a second goal, but no chances were created in the opening couple of minutes. Seko Fofana had a chance on goal in the 57th, his low shot narrowly missing by just a few inches. Christensen almost assisted in making the game 2-1 to Fulham 7 minutes later, when his pass found Alexander Kačaniklić on the edge of the box, his left footed shot launching the shot just wide.

A penalty looked like it was going to be given when McCormack was barged onto the floor around the 75th minute, but ref Federick Graham was opposed to it.

After a quick switch for Fulham (Patrick Roberts for Christensen), and another for City (Nikola Zigic on for Donaldson), Rodallega got a quick chance on goal in the 86th minute, receiving a pass from Kacaniklic and shooting low, but unfortunately it was caught by Randolph.

Rodallega again almost came through with a late winner for the last chance of the game, with his acrobatic effort in stoppage time being punched away by Randolph, pretty much ending the game.

This result leaves Fulham in 16th place on the Championship table with 36 points, 10 places away from playoff contention. Our next game is against Bolton Wanderers on Tuesday. Come on Fulham!