Draw is bad news for United

Fulham's Luis Boa Morte (R) charges into Luis Saha (L) of Manchester United during the Premiership football match at Loftus Road in London

Louis Saha scored against his old club but Manchester United dropped two potentially crucial points and fell further behind in the title race after Fulham held the champions to a 1-1 draw.

Saha silenced the boo boys targeting him over his controversial move to Old Trafford when he latched on to Cristiano Ronaldo's through ball and smashed a powerful shot high into the net.

Fulham however never gave up and, exploiting United's makeshift defence, equalised in the second half when Luis Boa Morte rounded Wes Brown and placed a low drive past United's number two keeper Roy Carroll.

With Arsenal winning at Charlton, United, now placed third, dropped to nine points behind with 11 matches left to play.

United's desperation was evident in their passionate appeals for a penalty for a foul on Saha which were waved away, even though it appeared Fulham keeper Edwin Van der Sar had tripped the striker.

Darren Fletcher, Uruguayan striker Diego Forlan and Carroll were drafted in to rest tired legs after the midweek Champions League defeat to FC Porto, as Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Ryan Giggs and Tim Howard were demoted to the bench.

Forlan's partnership with Saha almost produced a quickfire goal, but the Frenchman blasted wide after 10 seconds.

United made their superiority pay when Carroll threw the ball out to Ronaldo, whose incisive pass picked out Saha. Two touches and the Frenchman smashed a powerful shot that flew past his former teammate Van der Sar.

Fulham's Moritz Volz (L) tries to control the ball in front of Cristiano Ronaldo (R) of Manchester United during the Premiership football match at Loftus Road in London

Fulham slowly got into contention, demonstrated when Sylvain Legwinski shaved the United crossbar.

Ronaldo was full of tricks at the start of the second half and he was unfortunate not to score when his shot went narrowly wide.

Forlan could also have secured the three points United desperately needed but he headed straight at Van der Sar after Ronaldo's pinpoint cross.

After 64 minutes, Boa Morte made United suffer when he combined well with US striker Brian McBride to equalise.

Brown was left for dead by the Portuguese striker's speed but Carroll will have been disappointed with the way he dealt with the shot.

Saha did appear to have been felled by Van der Sar after being released by Forlan, but referee Alan Whiley ignored their pleas and even booked Van Nistelrooy for protesting from the sidelines.

When Van Nistelrooy and Giggs came into the game with 15 minutes left they were unable to change its course as the Red Devils looked impotent for the second time in a week.