Fulham’s Andy Johnson dented Wolves’ survival hopes with a late equaliser in their 1-1 draw that saw visiting manager Mark Hughes sent off.
The striker – and substitute – had barely been on the Molineux pitch for 60 seconds when he cancelled out Steven Fletcher’s first-half header to leave Wolves languishing in the bottom three.
Fulham started with plenty of purpose. Carlos Salcido unleashed a powerful 25-yard shot that seemed destined for Wayne Hennessey’s top corner until the Wolves keeper leapt to spectacularly palm the ball away.
Aaron Hughes failed to connect with a close-range header from the resulting corner and after Clint Dempsey had fired wide from the edge of the area, the American then blazed over when clean through on goal as the Cottagers dominated the opening 20 minutes.
And with Richard Stearman lucky to escape with just a caution instead of a straight red card for a studs-up lunge on Steve Sidwell, the hosts were struggling to stay in the game.
Yet with their first attack of any note, Wolves went ahead courtesy of a superbly executed header from Fletcher, who out jumped Hughes to meet Karl Henry’s perfectly-weighted right wing cross.
A Danny Murphy body check on Henry raised tempers with words exchanged between both sides as they headed to the rooms at the break.
Both goalkeepers were called into action from the restart with Hennessey diving on a loose ball and Mark Schwarzer tipping Adlene Guedioura’s 20-yard drive around the post at the other end.
Fulham’s frustration boiled over with manager Hughes sent to the stands for kicking a water bottle in reaction to Brede Hangeland’s yellow card.
Hennessey again coped well with a long-range effort from Sidwell before Fletcher latched on to a poor Schwarzer clearance to draw a vital save from the Australian.
And moments later, the inspired 80th-minute introduction of Johnson salvaged Fulham a draw as the striker volleyed home from the edge of the area.
Sat 23 April, 2011
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