Cottagers take a point on frustrating afternoon in N17

It ended all square against Fulham on Sunday afternoon, as we played out our first Premier League draw since the opening day of the season.

In a game in which goalkeepers Fraser Forster and Bernd Leno made a number of good saves, Brennan Johnson volleyed us into the lead early in the second half with his 10th goal of the season in all competitions. However, the visitors levelled it up through Tom Cairney, who later received a straight red for a challenge on Dejan Kulusevski with seven minutes remaining.

We mounted some late pressure with the numerical advantage but couldn’t find that one moment to trouble Leno and had to settle for a point at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the first league draw since our 1-1 at Leicester City on matchday one.

We could have taken the lead inside the first minute when a loose pass from Calvin Bassey was picked up by Timo Werner, he fed Heung-Min Son inside the area but Leno was out quickly to block his shot while, in the 12 minute, Raul Jimenez sent a header over the bar from Sasa Lukic’s corner.

Fulham went close again five minutes later, Alex Iwobi’s clever ball in behind for Jimenez, who controlled on his chest but Forster rushed out to smother him before play went up the other end, Son unable to round Leno from a stray backpass.

Both goalkeepers were in good form, Forster called into action again in the 36th minute, this time making an excellent instinctive one-handed save to keep out Jimenez’s 10-yard volley from a Kenny Tete cross before Leno had tip over Radu Dragusin’s powerful header from a corner moments later. And Forster then got the merest of fingertips to send Iwobi’s deflected drive onto the crossbar as the visitors threatened again.

Just before the break, we came so close to breaking the deadlock after a clever moment from James Maddison, who struck a 25-yard free-kick under Fulham’s defensive wall – without the usual ‘draft excluder’ lying behind it – and the ball just flicked off a boot on its way through before hitting the outside of the post with Leno stranded.

The chances kept coming as the second half got underway, five minutes in when Reiss Nelson delivered a cross to the far post which Issa Diop met with a strong header only for Forster’s big hand to push it past the post, and he was there again a minute later to keep out Iwobi’s right-foot effort.

We were a bit under the cosh at this stage, frustration seeping in among the players and the fans, but all that changed in the 54th minute as we opened the scoring. It was easy enough as well when it came, Werner down the left delivering the perfect cross for Johnson to volley home at the far post from six yards out.

The lead only lasted 13 minutes though as the visitors hit back quickly through Cairney, the substitute rifling left-footed into the far corner of the net from the edge of the box just minutes after coming on. But the Fulham midfielder was involved for the wrong reasons with seven minutes left, an awkward-looking challenge on Kulusevski resulting in a straight red card after intervention from the VAR, who suggested an on-field review by referee Darren Bond, as he’d initially given a yellow card.

That should have led to a frantic finish – we brought Will Lankshear on for his Premier League debut – but Fulham were content to drop everyone deep and invited us to break them down, which we were unable to as it ended honours even. The headline team news saw Dominic Solanke miss out through illness as we made four changes from Thursday night's Europa League draw with Roma as Destiny Udogie, Yves Bissouma, Maddison and Werner came in for Archie Gray, Rodrigo Bentancur, Kulusevski and Solanke. Former Spur Ryan Sessegnon came off the bench for Fulham in the closing stages.

Match data

Goals: Spurs – Johnson 54; Fulham – Cairney 67.

Yellow card: Fulham – Lukic.

Red card: Fulham – Cairney.

Referee: Darren Bond.

Venue: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Weather: Drizzle, gentle breeze, 13 degrees.

Attendance: 61,141.