A PECULIARLY fascinating stalemate. Unaccustomed to not being in imminent peril, Fulham huffed and puffed against an unyielding Manchester City, who seem only to be waiting for the January sales to open. Even so, with a little more ambition City might have pilfered three points to leapfrog their hosts, but as manager Mark Hughes noted afterwards: “It was not a game we expected to win.”

Fulham woke up yesterday unbeaten in four games and unchanged in three and were they in need of further fillip, ankle injuries to Robinho and Micah Richards precluded their appearance.

Indeed, should this and other games have gone their way, they would have been in seventh place this morning. But, lest we forget, Fulham would hardly be Fulham if scripts were followed and, for all their coltish enthusiasm, they were a goal down after City’s first thrust.

Pablo Zabaleta sent over a superlative cross from the right and Benjani leapt between John Pantsil and Aaron Hughes to head his first league goal since April. Undeterred, Fulham rallied and Joe Hart dived bravely at the feet of Andy Johnson after he was set up by Bobby Zamora’s delightful dummy.

Later, Johnson had a cast-iron penalty denied when Richard Dunne handled as the forward whizzed around him. “It did seem to me there was a definite move of hand to ball, so we could feel a little aggrieved,” noted Fulham manager Roy Hodgson. Yet his Fulham have more steel and more faith than in previous incarnations and after 28 minutes they were level, with Zamora imperious once more.

His reverse pass outfoxed the flat-footed Dunne and, as Fabio Capello watched from the directors’ box, Jimmy Bullard ran on, kept his head and whipped his first Premier League goal since March past Hart.

Prompted by the effervescent Bullard — how Fulham would suffer were he to flee next month — and the tigerish Simon Davies, like white-shirted Oliver Twists, Fulham wanted more.

Clint Dempsey screwed a shot wide when well placed. He was less culpable 38 minutes in, when he headed Bullard’s cross inches over.

City’s momentum extinguished by their opener, there was precious little from them to note bar a 39th-minute Benjani swivel and shot that beat Mark Schwarzer by a little and the post by even less. But as they had at the start of the first half, City almost caught Fulham cold early in the second when full-back Paul Konchesky’s tendency to get sucked into the middle allowed Zabaleta through, only for the Argentinian to be foiled by Schwarzer’s fingertips.

Again, though, City retreated and Capello surely purred as Hart flew across his goal to tip over Bullard’s thunderbolt 30-yard free kick. Later, Michael Ball blocked on the line after a goalmouth scrum and the winner remained elusive.

The longer the game went on, and the more Darius Vassell drifted into the vacant chasms on City’s right, the more it seemed the visitors might have mugging on their minds. In the 83rd minute Zabaleta was again given licence to roam and again Schwarzer had to be on his mettle, but City’s heart was set on one rather than three points.

“There’s a certain sadness that we didn’t win,” mused Hodgson. “But I’m pleased that we maintained our shape and discipline after our poor start. At Fulham it’s always going to be small steps.”

Star man: Jimmy Bullard (Fulham)

Yellow cards: Fulham: Pantsil, Bullard

Man City: Ireland

Referee: R Styles

Attendance: 24,012

FULHAM: Schwarzer 7, Pantsil 6, Hughes 6, Hangeland 6, Konchesky 5, Dempsey 6, Murphy 6, Bullard 7, Davies 7, Zamora 7, Johnson 7

MANCHESTER CITY: Hart 7, Zabaleta 7, Ben-Haim 5, Dunne 6, Ball 6, Vassell 6, Hamann 6, Wright-Phillips 5, Kompany 5, Ireland 6, Benjani 7 (Evans 77min)