Slavisa Jokanovic admitted Fulham’s performance against Bolton was ‘not good enough‘ despite a late equaliser from the returning Tom Cairney salvaging a point against the Championship’s bottom side.

Craven Cottage erupted in relief when the Fulham captain, starting his first game since August after a troublesome knee injury, headed home Kevin McDonald’s cross in the fifth minute of stoppage time to cancel out Sammy Ameobi’s first-half opener, but Jokanovic was far from impressed. The Fulham head coach told his post-match press conference:

In the end, it’s not enough for us. his performance is not good enough, if you compare it to the expectations of the club. We are not performing at the level that is expected. We came to win today, but if you score a goal that late, you must be relatively satisfied.

The Serbian was also furious that the Whites were denied the chance to go in front early in the first half but he felt was an errant offside flag.

We scored a late goal, but we scored an early goal too. Ayite was onside and I don’t know what the reason was for disallowing the goal. If you score a legal goal, you expect it to stand.

Jokanovic also castigated Fulham’s sloppy defending which presented Ameobi with the opportunity to open the scoring as well as his side’s passive approach play.

After this situation, we still complicated our life much more, with a slip at one important moment and they somehow scored a goal without creating any chances. We tried to move the ball faster, especially in the second-half. We created many chances and were alive in and around the box. We shot nineteen times, but we didn’t find a clear way to score a goal.

We gave them a chance to score an easy goal. The long balls are a problem for us. We’re not solid enough in both boxes. I don’t want to blame my players and complain – they showed fantastic spirit and pushed hard until the last second to get one point more. We need to keep going and continue to work hard to improve in both boxes.

The Fulham head coach did salute his captain’s telling contribution, enthusing about the difference Cairney makes to his side.

It’s very important to have Tom Cairney back. It’s been a tough start to the Championship for him, so it’s very good for him to score a goal and very good for us to have him back him back in the squad.