Slavisa Jokanovic was pleased with his side’s fighting spirit as Tom Cairney grabbed a point at the death against Leeds United in the crunch promotion clash at Craven Cottage last night – but the Fulham head coach feels they should have taken all three points.
Jokanovic was bemused by referee Lee Probert’s decision to wave play on after Neeskens Kebano’s first half shot bounced down off the crossbar when it appeared over the line. Subsequent television replays showed it to be well over the goal-line, but the Serbian head coach was delighted that his side continued to press for an equaliser deep into stoppage time.
First of all I am really proud of how my team played football tonight. As we conceded one and scored two I believe we deserve three points.
We had an accidental start, we scored an own goal then we scored a legal goal but the referee didn’t see this situation very well. Second half he probably missed one penalty for us and at the very end we found some kind of compensation and Tom Cairney scored a fantastic goal.
He was also delighted with the composed and patient manner of Fulham’s passing football that eventually wore down a well-drilled Leeds outfit.
We played all the football on the pitch tonight, we moved from one side to the other side, we created many chances. We won only one point but I believe my team deserve three tonight.
It’s important that we play with confidence, that we play with our style. We moved the ball, we created many chances, we shot 23 times and my team played with confidence. My team believed they can play very good football, today we played very well. Okay we scored two, well we scored three, the third to win the game at the end.
It’s not a question about entertaining football, I believe we did enough today to win the game, I don’t want to have possession of the ball for nothing.
Jokanovic also refused to directly criticise Probert or his assistant, saying that the mistake was down to ‘human error’.
I cannot complain about the referee. It’s a human error, you can make a mistake but it’s a very expensive mistake. And from my position I saw how the ball was moving, I was sure it was a legal goal. We checked after at half-time and it was a big mistake but that is part of the football too. I don’t know how to explain, I was sure the ball was past the line, and for some reason the assistant didn’t watch the situation very well.
But I am really proud of my team, how we played football, how we fought with confidence, how we defended with the Fulham press. My team was really competitive, and we found this kind of compensation in the last moment of the game.
