Fulham 1-1 FC Twente: Andrew Johnson’s clinical first half strike cancelled out by Luuk de Jong header

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Perhaps with one eye on the visit of Manchester City to Craven Cottage at the weekend, Martin Jol decided to rest a number of key figures, most notably Philippe Senderos, Damien Duff and Bobby Zamora. Drafted in were Pajtim Kamasi, Moussa Dembele and debutant Zdenek Grygera.

The passage of the duo into Europa League Group K could not have been more contrasting, with the hosts undertaking the gruelling process of eight qualifying matches and Twente taking the step down after failing to make the grade in the Champions League.

However, neither class or intensive preparation seemed to come into the affair as both teams took their time getting into full stride, with the game’s opening exchanges characterised by niggling challenges rather than quality on the ball.

The game slowly gathered traction as Mark Schwarzer collected a comfy shot from Leroy Fer, before Clint Dempsey first fired over with a volley then forced a sharp save down to his right by Nikolay Mihaylov with a composed drive from the edge of the box.

More robust in the challenge and intent in attack, Fulham began to assert their dominance on the game and it came as little surprise when Johnson opened the scoring, capitalising on Dwight Tiendalli’s woeful pass across his own defence, to nip in and loft the ball over Mihaylov and in off the post.

Danny Murphy then went close when his header from a long, hopeful Brede Hangeland ball into the box flew into the near post side-netting while up the other end Luuk de Jong’s headed effort was on target but Schwarzer was equal to it.

At the second time of asking though, De Jong came up with the goods as Rosales crossed in from the right and the striker took advantage of a nick off of Steve Sidwell to plant a firm header against the right upright which rather fortuitously bounced off the back of Schwarzer and into the net.

When the teams emerged for the second half the set-up was similar to that of the first, with the home side dictating both tempo and possession. When Johnson teased one into the box, Dempsey got on the end of it though his bouncing header narrowly went both high and wide.

Fulham continued to stay on the front foot and had a penalty call denied when Dempsey turned and stumbled in the box under some close attention from the opposition defence.

Moments later Dempsey was at it again, forcing Mihaylov to palm away a rasping drive from the edge of the area as Fulham began to gather more momentum for the final third of the game, bringing on Bobby Zamora to replace Johnson.

Fulham still pushed and as Sidwell darted into the box he was a yard or two away from converting Kasami’s driven cross as he met it powerfully with his head well inside the area.

As the game edged into the final 15 minutes, the hosts began to look increasingly vulnerable on the counter as they continued to push for a winner, though the several Twente forays into their box came to no avail.

Aside from Roberto Rosales' effort that fizzed just past the post, from there on the game petered out with little inciden,t allowing Fulham to extend their undefeated stretch at home in Europe to 21 games. However, the most pertinent talking point will be another game in which Jol’s team dominated without managing to seal victory.