The return of Roy Hodgson was greeted by warm applause but entertainment was scarce on a freezing evening that finally ignited when Bryan Ruiz threaded a 69th-minute pass to Clint Dempsey, who slid his 16th goal of the term past Ben Foster.
This arrived against a slight tide of West Bromwich Albion play that had them appearing the more likely to score first after the teams trotted out for the second period. And after the American's strike Hodgson, back at Craven Cottage for a first time since departing for Liverpool 18 months ago, watched as the disjointed pattern of the match continued to frustrate his side before Somen Tchoyi's late leveller secured a point.
Hodgson, who led Fulham to the 2010 Europa League final during his two-and-half year spell here, said: "It's nice to come here and get a point. I thought it was fantastic the reception I got from the crowd, which made it a very nice evening for me. The club's moving on now. It has moved on and perhaps they're more stable than they were when I was here, but they were very nice times for me."
Of his goalscorer, he added: "Tchoyi's a dangerous player. He's unpredictable. He has got ability. Obviously at 1-0 with 12 minutes left to play I thought it was the right moment [to bring him on]. Luckily the chance came his way and he took it with great skill. He made it look quite easy but it was a great strike at goal."
Hodgson's counterpart, Martin Jol, agreed this was about the right result: "You need a lot of patience against West Brom because they try to screen and don't give you a lot of space. You need extra quality and that is what we did on the goal."
Bobby Zamora, the main man in this parish, had been sold to Queens Park Rangers in Tuesday's final hour of transfer dealing, but even he would have struggled with the paucity of chances on offer. Asked about his £6m departure Jol, who had his differences with Zamora, said: "For us it was the best Bobby could do. It was the best offer and we decided to accept it.
"It was lingering on for months. He wanted that move, so … you always want to keep your players on board. It wasn't something that happened over the past few days. The timing was probably ideal. Bobby left and then we could get Pavel [Pogrebynak] in."
The first half had consisted of each side's attempt to reach for a rhythm that might have allowed them to sweep beyond the other and chalk up a first goal. But fluidity was elusive and instead the crowd witnessed Fulham's Brede Hangeland or Danny Murphy or Youssouf Mulumbu for West Bromwich spray aimless balls to an opponent to suggest hopes of the arrival of a goal anytime soon were optimistic.
Fulham's best effort was a Steve Sidwell 25-yarder that was always rising beyond Ben Foster's bar but did at least get a clap from the home faithful. When Simon Cox flipped a pass down John Arne Riise's left flank to find Peter Odemwingie the contest finally had a respectable move and after the forward slipped he still managed to find Marc-Antoine Fortuné but his attempt blazed over.