Slavisa Jokanovic cut a frustrated figure after Fulham conceded a late equaliser to draw with Norwich in their opening Championship encounter – and the Serbian head coach bemoaned both the lack of an offside flag to rule out Nelson Oliveira’s late strike and Fulham’s failure to put the game away.

Speaking to the press following the final whistle, the Fulham head coach said:

You’re always disappointed when your opponent equalises late in the game. I’m a little bit hurt that we conceded at this stage and a little bit frustrated about the goal. From my position, I don’t think the goal we conceded was legal, but I can’t guarantee it without analysing the situation again.

We weren’t fresh enough to find a little more power during the game, and started losing the ball more in the last 20 minutes. We needed to push harder and be stronger off the ball. Norwich started to play between us, so I tried to find a more aggressive and stronger solution in midfield with Cisse. They created many problems on the left side, so I put on Denis Odoi to try and fix the problem.

I can see we’re on a similar level to last season. We weren’t clinical in the important moments. We could’ve killed the game and we didn’t.

Jokanovic had warm words of praise for Fulham’s new arrivals – three of whom featured in the first fixture.

I’m satisfied with the new players as they’ve showed great desire and are working hard. I believe Oliver Norwood played a very good sixty minutes, and moved the ball well. Kamara has only had four sessions with us, but he’s already shown that he’s a strong and fast man. Norwood, Kamara and Cisse all can offer us characteristics that we’ve been missing.

He confirmed that Kevin McDonald had been withdrawn from the matchday squad on the morning of the game due to further tightness in his calf.

We thought he would be available today, but we checked on him this morning and he wasn’t ready. We’ll continue to assess him and expect he’ll soon be available to help us.