Swansea 2 Fulham 0
Fulham striker Bobby Zamora was left out of his team’s squad for the defeat at the Liberty Stadium, where Clint Dempsey scored an own goal and missed a penalty.
Danny Graham’s late header sealed victory for Swansea, whose goalkeeper Michel Vorm kept the visitors at bay in the second half.
Zamora’s omission is sure to fuel rumours of a bust-up with manager Martin Jol, who recalled Andrew Johnson to the starting line-up.
Jol was without skipper Danny Murphy, who failed a fitness test on an ankle problem, so Simon Davies returned to the side following a five-month absence with a knee injury.
Swansea had the better of a dismal in first half and almost went ahead when Luke Moore’s 25-yard effort struck the bar.
It was no surprise when Swansea went ahead in the second period – but the scorer of the goal was unexpected.
After Fulham failed to clear a corner, Scott Sinclair’s shot deflected off the unfortunate Dempsey and into the net.
Jol’s side responded well and Dempsey almost scored at the other end with a long-range effort which Vorm did well to save.
Vorm did even better to deny Johnson, while John Arne Riise went close to equalising with a thunderous free-kick.
And Vorm then compounded Dempsey’s misery by diving to his right to push away the American’s spot-kick after Karim Frei had been fouled in the box.
Swansea’s win was sealed when Graham out-muscled Brede Hangeland at the near post to flick home Mark Gower’s corner.
This post was last modified on 11/12/2011