Fulham thwart Manchester United yet again

Fulham 2 Manchester United 2. For the third consecutive season Manchester United failed to leave Craven Cottage with three points after a last-gasp goal from Brede Hangeland earned Fulham a share of the spoils in an enthralling encounter. The towering Norwegian defender was the star turn in a thrilling end to the match, deflecting a corner into his own net on 84 minutes and then rising majestically at the other end to head the equaliser. "It's a terrible feeling," Hangeland said later of his own goal. "I don't think I could have done anything different. It looked like someone was going to head it. I had one chance to make up for it. I looked at the clock after my own goal and thought I had five minutes to score at the right end, and fortunately I managed to do it."

Yet if Hangeland was the hero for Fulham, it was Paul Scholes who once again proved to be United's outstanding performer. Fresh from his scintillating display in last week's win against Newcastle, the 35-year-old was soon in on the action, fizzing a 25-yard strike past David Stockdale's left hand to give the visitors the lead after just 11 minutes.

It was nothing more than United deserved for even without Wayne Rooney – absent through illness – they outplayed Fulham in the opening spell. Scholes' goal, his 150th for the club, was created by Dimitar Berbatov who came close to extending United's lead on several occasions but couldn't find a way past the impressive Stockdale.

Fulham got into their stride the longer the first half continued and Simon Davies and Bobby Zamora both narrowly failed to find the target, while Dickson Etuhu forced Edwin van der Sar into a brilliant double save just before the half-hour mark.

Though Scholes' effort was all that separated the sides at half-time there was a whiff of more goals in the air and so it proved on 57 minutes as Damien Duff combined with Zamora out wide on the right before the England striker slipped a neat ball to Davies ten yards from the United goal. Davies' rifled his shot past  van der Sar to give the Fulham fans hope that they might be on course to make it three home victories in a row over United.

There were chances either end as the game wore on with Zamora guilty of squandering a golden opportunity on 80 minutes.

Four minutes later United were in front after a Ryan Giggs' corner deflected off Hangeland's left leg and into the Fulham goal. A minute later Nani had the chance to put the game beyond the Cottagers' reach when Damien Duff was penalised for handling the ball in his area. But Stockdale guessed correctly and dived to his right to save the penalty and keep Fulham's slim hopes alive.

And just three minutes later Hangeland redeemed himself by outleaping the United defence and heading home Duff's corner.  The draw is better news for Fulham than for United, whose manager, Alex Ferguson, had some harsh afterwards for his team. "You don't want to be dropping silly points and we dropped silly points today," he said, adding: "There was an opportunity to go 3-1 ahead with three minutes left and we didn't take it. I don't think we deserved to be in front at 2-1 but, when you get the opportunity to seal the game with that penalty, you should be taking it. To miss a penalty kick to make it 3-1, you're throwing two points away there, I'm afraid."

For Hangeland, the result was proof that the camaraderie that took Fulham to the final of the Europa League last season is intact, despite Mark Hughes having replaced Roy Hodgson as manager in the summer. "We have had a great team spirit for the last two or three years," said Hangeland. "We never say die at this club and we showed it again.'' ·