Manchester City's slim title hopes suffered another setback as they were held to a draw at home by Fulham. City, badly missing the creativity of the injured David Silva, went ahead when Mario Balotelli rifled in a superb right-foot shot from outside the area. Aleksandar Kolarov wasted a fine chance before Fulham, managed by ex-City boss Mark Hughes, levelled when Damien Duff converted Andrew Johnson's cross. Carlos Tevez and Kolarov went close, but City could not find a winner. The draw leaves City 10 points behind Premier League leaders Manchester United having played a game more than their local rivals. And it was a result that will mean a lot to Fulham manager Hughes, who was sacked as City boss in December 2009 as the club appointed Roberto Mancini as his replacement. It appeared as though there is little love lost between the two men, who came together in angry fashion after the final whistle. They walked towards each other without looking and barely shook hands, both men withdrawing their grasp and disappearing down the tunnel. But Hughes will be by far the happier of the two bosses having seen his side accumulate another crucial point in their battle to stay in the top flight and it was a point they thoroughly deserved for another determined display. City, fresh from easing into the last 16 of the Europa League courtesy of a 3-0 win over Aris Salonika on Thursday, were never at their best and they must now focus on gathering enough points to ensure they stay in the top four and qualify for next season's Champions League. Balotelli, Tevez and Edin Dzeko once again formed a three-man attack but they were impressively shackled by the Fulham rearguard and they missed the prompting and probing of Silva, missing with an ankle injury. Fulham had not lost in their three previous league trips to Eastlands and they more than matched City from the outset, breaking up the hosts' flow and starving them of possession in areas where they could do real damage. City's best early chance was a Balotelli volley from a corner that flew over but Fulham quickly replied with two of their own as they began to enjoy themselves. First Danny Murphy fired narrowly over and then Moussa Dembele forced Joe Hart to save, both shots coming from outside the area. Just as City seemed to be struggling, a moment of magic broke the deadlock in their favour. Balotelli played a one-two with Tevez outside the Fulham box on the left and after holding off Murphy, he bulleted a right-foot shot into the bottom corner of Schwarzer's net. Fulham's heads briefly went down and they could have been 2-0 behind when their defenders inexplicably let the ball run into their penalty area to Kolarov on the left, the Serb selfishly shooting into the side-netting instead of squaring to Tevez or Dzeko. But gradually they worked their way back into it and after Dembele had an effort bravely blocked, soon after the restart the Cottagers got the reward their endeavour deserved. It was a beautifully worked goal too as Hangeland fed a pass to Johnson down the right, he fizzed over a cross to the back post and there was Duff, hurtling forward to meet the ball eight yards out and direct it past a flat-footed Hart. The visitors were suitably buoyed and Andrew Johnson fired low at Hart as the Eastlands crowd began to show signs of their frustration with City struggling. Slowly but surely City did begin to create some chances of their own and Balotelli mis-kicked eight yards out after great work down the right from Pablo Zabaleta, before Patrick Vieira came on for the ineffective Dzeko and gave Mancini's side a lift. Balotelli played Tevez through and his left-foot shot was superbly tipped around his post by Mark Schwarzer, before Kolarov's awkwardly dipping volley from fully 30 yards was pushed over the bar by the Australian stopper. But City continued to labour and in the end they can have few complaints about Fulham heading back to London with a point. Source: BBC