COTTAGERS RALLY TO FRUSTRATE CITY

MANCHESTER CITY chucked away the chance to close on neighbours United after blowing a 2-0 lead against plucky Fulham.

Mark Hughes feels City are genuine title contenders and will have been buoyed by his old team's defeat at Anfield.

Things were going to plan when Joleon Lescott and Martin Petrov put City firmly in the driving seat on the hour mark but Damien Duff and Clint Dempsey responded as the Londoners rallied to take a point.

Petrov fired over before Carlos Tevez was inches away from opening the scoring when clipping Emmanuel Adebayor's lay-off just wide of Mark Schwarzer's left-hand post.

Fulham also carried a threat and Diomansy Kamara should have done better when clean through but he allowed Shay Given to nullify the danger.

It prompted City to up their game and Adebayor wanted a penalty after being felled by Stephen Kelly before Schwarzer, outstanding against Roma on Thursday night, saved well from Nigel De Jong.

Jonathan Greening, Tevez and Adebayor had efforts but Micah Richards actually had the ball in the net, only for referee Kevin Friend to rule it out.

The second half started with Bobby Zamora somehow contriving to miss a sitter after Given pushed a Dempsey shot invitingly out to him. It did little to banish his reputation as a misfiring striker.

Instead, the deadlock was broken at the other end with Craig Bellamy and Gareth Barry setting up Adebayor, whose shot was helped in by Lescott from close range.

Fulham looked dead and buried when Petrov collected a Wayne Bridge pass and beat two defenders before firing past Schwarzer.

City had barely stopped celebrating when Zamora's chest-pass found Duff and he drilled past his Ireland team-mate Given from the edge of the penalty area.

Soon afterwards, Greening's free-kick was met by Dempsey and the two-goal lead had been swiftly cancelled out.

It was a warning to City about how hard it is to win games at this level, even with their impressive new-look team, and they showed their frustration when players from both sides squared up after Dempsey went down on the edge of the City box.

Given had to be alert to keep out a Zamora header as Fulham chased an unlikely victory but Roy Hodgson avoided more late heartbreak when Barry's header drifted wide.

City lie in sixth position but they would have been up to third with a game in hand had they held on to their lead.

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