Slavisa Jokanovic was pleased to secure Fulham’s first home win of the season – but recognised his side needed to improve if they were challenge for promotion and urged his team to avoid any more ‘heart-attack’ games.
The Serbian head coach was speaking after the Whites edged a nervy contest against Hull City courtesy of a second half strike from Stefan Johansen. Jokanovic admitted he wasn’t fully satisfied with the manner of the victory, especially after Fulham led another lead slip and failed to replicate their first half dominance after the break at Craven Cottage. He told his post-match press conference:
It’s the best news for us tonight because we’ve won a game in our stadium. We had many minutes where we played good football and created many chances.
We didn’t start the second half well and we could have been in danger of losing the game. Fortunately we scored the goal, we created many chances, we caught them many times in an offensive transition too, but we were not finishing. We offered some quality but to be a more serious team, a more competitive team, we must improve. This is not enough and we must keep working.
We didn’t control the situation well enough, but fortunately we won the game, which is the best news for us. We played better against Ipswich. Many people think that when we win the game we’ve played fantastic football and when we’ve lost the game nothing is working well.
I am not satisfied today with our performance, I am satisfied with three points but today we were under a big risk, we didn’t finish what we needed to in the right moment and this kind of risk you can pay such an expensive price for, which we have paid in the past.
We must be more brave, more solid, more adult, if you want, in some situations. In football, during 90-something minutes there is always some moments where you are not comfortable during the game where the other team dominates you. In this moment we must understand, interpret the situation better and finish the game in an easier way. All the other games at home are heart-attack games, which is not healthy!
