Swansea City pile misery on Fulham

Swansea City beat struggling Fulham 2-1 at Craven Cottage this afternoon to climb three places to ninth in the Premier League table.

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With top-scorer Michu injured, Michael Laudrup handed Danny Graham a rare start and the striker rewarded his manager with the opening goal.

Fulham goalkeeper David Stockdale could only palm Nathan Dyer's shot back out into the danger zone and Graham pounced to smartly convert the rebound on 19 minutes.

A long-range Bryan Ruiz strike forced Gerhard Tremmel into an excellent save, and the Fulham playmaker was also a goal threat after the interval.

His 20-yard bending free kick seemed to have the visiting stopper beaten, but it drifted narrowly wide of the post.

Almost immediately after, Swansea moved further clear with a second goal that came courtesy of another Stockdale mistake.

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The England Under-21 international miscued a clearance straight to Pablo Hernandez, who released Jonathan de Guzman to calmly apply the finish.

Ruiz's frustration in front of goal was ended four minutes later when he diverted Dimitar Berbatov's shot into the home net.

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Fulham were denied an equaliser when the Bulgarian was flagged offside before tapping in the rebound to Giorgos Karagounis's shot.

Despite having several more chances, Martin Jol's side were unable to rescue a point and they have now only won one of their last 12 top-flight matches.