With the clock clicking down on the final match of 2008, Felipe Scolari was looking at a win that would have kept his side just one point off the pace going into the new year.

But then Clint Dempsey headed in a Simon Davies corner to send the home supporters at the Hammersmith End of Craven Cottage into a relieved frenzy and send the Chelsea supporters at the other end home disappointed, despite ending the year unbeaten away in league matches.

Earlier in the second half, the Blues fans at the Putney End had watched Frank Lampard grab the game by the scruff of the neck, first capitalising after a Drogba-forced mistake from the Fulham rearguard and then smashing low free kick in as he had done in the same net four years before.

That had taken Chelsea into the lead after Dempsey, again from a Davies delivery, had been allowed two close-range touches to score at a free kick, the first away league goal conceded in eight games.

Scolari made a point of praising the officiating of referee Andre Marriner but it was the manner of the goals conceded that most occupied his post-match analysis.

'We have been very good defending the balls from free kicks and corner kicks this season but today no,' the Chelsea manager lamented.

'Any player at the start of the game knows who they need to mark. It is my job now to look and ask what happened in these situation, but I do not say now which player marks these men. It is my job and my dressing room but we made mistakes and we will look.'

Scolari revealed that part of half-time had been spent discussing how the team had been out numbered in key areas for Fulham's first. After the final whistle the manager could be seen in further discussion with Petr Cech.

'Petr is the captain for this area and I give to Petr the power to say this or that and I ask him what has happened,' he explained, 'because one player in the middle of the area free in the last minute, it is incredible.

'We won one point at Everton, we lost two points today. Apart from the goals, Fulham had one more chance. We had 10 chances and we scored two goals.'

Fulham are now unbeaten in nine games but their manager, Roy Hodgson, believed Chelsea had earned the 2-1 lead that threatened to end that run.

'The shape of our team was very good in the first half and we nullified a lot of Chelsea's quality attacking play but we did not start the second half very well,' Hodgson said.

'As a result of good pressure they were able to put on us, good quality possession in our half, they were able to score two goals.

'But after 2-1 we did find our feet a little bit. We did play more football and as result we put their goalkeeper under more pressure than we did in the first 25 minutes of the second half.

'It is nice when you can score from set pieces some times. We aren't an exaggerated set piece team but you do try to use them to your advantage and luckily today it paid off.'

Amid the Chelsea frustration, Lampard's contribution could not pass without comment. The stand-in captain told chelseafc.com after the West Brom game that he often goes on a goal-run after a period of not finding the net and his two at Fulham follow on from the West Brom strike.

'He is not a man to accept losing any game,' said Scolari, 'and he is the man today with chances more than any other player because he wants to score the second or third goal.'

While the midfielder was probably the first name on the scoresheet, Scolari did rotate for the second game in 48 hours, swapping Deco for Ballack and Malouda for Anelka, although that second switch was reversed in the first half after a hamstring strain for Malouda. Alex was also lost in the first half to a similar injury, Ricardo Carvalho coming in for his first action in two months.

Now attention turns to the start of the FA Cup campaign next weekend and then a crucial league game at Old Trafford.

'The championship was not finished today. It may be finished in the final two or three games. We need to win all the games,' was Scolari's simple instruction. 'But this is not just for Chelsea, it's for all the clubs.'

There will be further reaction in Chelsea TV's Monday Night Live.