NORWICH City suffered a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Fulham at Craven Cottage.

Neil Adams will rue Lewis Grabban's missed penalty straight after half-time, and a second period in general where they were on the front foot throughout.

It also included a Josh Murphy strike that rattled the crossbar, but Fulham's determined displayed earned them the three points, with their goal coming through Sean Kavanagh midway through the first half.

The result means City surrendered top spot in the Championship at the final whistle, with Tuesday's visit of Leeds United to come.

Adams made two changes to his starting eleven as Steven Whittaker and Alex Tettey returned to the team at the expense of Jonny Howson and Jos Hooiveld.

Howson was on the bench but Hooiveld missed out on the matchday squad after picking up a late knee injury, while Kyle Lafferty also failed to recover from his own knee problem in time for the match.

Fulham were captained by ex-City loanee Scott Parker as Kit Symons searced for his third win as caretaker manager, yet it was City who were quicker to stamp their authority.

Nathan Redmond was causing early problems on the right flank, with Marcus Bettinelli fumbling one cross and Cameron Jerome nodding over one of the youngster's corners.

Fulham had their first sight of goal on the quarter hour when Ross McCormack unleased from range before Tim Hoogland headed well wide from a corner shortly after.

They then broke the deadlock on 22 minutes, capitalising on a Michael Turner error to quickly pick out Kavanagh in space on the left, and he drilled home.

From there on in, the home side's confidence went onto another level and City had Wes Hoolahan to thank for keeping them in the contest six minutes prior to half-time.

The diminuitive midfielder was well-stationed on the line to clear a Dan Burn header just after his well-timed slide had prevented a McCormack threat.

HALF-TIME: Fulham 1-0 Norwich City

Norwich were offered the chance to level the game two minutes into the second half after the award of a penalty.

Jerome tumbled under the challenge of Dan Burn in the box, but Grabban's spot-kick bounced back off the crossbar, with the loose ball eventually cleared.

City's loss was Fulham's gain and they injected more energy into their attacks, with McCormack almost sneaking in around the back only to see his shot hit the sidenetting.

A knock picked up by Hoolahan meant he had to be replaced by Josh Murphy as City produced a more promising spell, getting at the Fulham defence.

The hosts' energy was admirable, however, and Adams brought on Gary Hooper for his first league appearance of the campaign in place of Grabban.

Bradley Johnson powered an effort just wide before Murphy went even closer, finding the woodwork - the second time for City in the half - after cutting in from the left.

They threw every man forward in the last moments but just couldn't yield the equaliser, meaning three games without a win for Adams' team.

FULL-TIME: Fulham 1-0 Norwich City

GOALS: Cottagers: Sean Kavanagh (22)

FULHAM: Bettinelli; Hoogland (Zverotic 22), Bodurov, Burn, Kavanagh; Parker (c); Christensen, Stafylidis; Ruiz (Dembele 72); McCormack, Rodallega. Subs not used: Kiraly (GK), Hutchinson, Hyndman, Roberts, G.Williams.

NORWICH CITY: Ruddy; Whittaker, Martin (c), Turner, Olsson; Tettey, Johnson; Redmond, Hoolahan (Josh Murphy 57), Grabban (Hooper 66); Jerome. Subs not used: Rudd (GK), Howson, Miquel, O'Neil, Odjidja.

REFEREE: Mr G Salisbury

ATTENDANCE: 20,776

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