Fulham boss Scott Parker admitted he was ‘bitterly disappointed’ after Fulham conceded two late goals to fall to defeat in their local derby with promotion rivals Brentford.
He told the club’s official website after the final whistle at Craven Cottage:
“Disappointing overall because obviously we’ve not won the game, not managed to get a result so it’s bitterly disappointing in that sense. The game ebbed and flowed a little bit. I felt we had a very good spell in the second half where we had a goal disallowed from Mitrovic, their keeper’s pulled off a great save, and we had another couple of chances in and around their box where really, we probably just need one of them to go in and then try and see out the game.
They were probably the moments where you need to score. It was a bit of a killer blow, a sucker punch how they got in and scored their (first) goal, and then the second is obviously a runaway goal where we’re going for it. So, overall disappointing, but we dust ourselves off and move on.”
Parker felt that the derby suffered from a lack of bite and intensity after having to be played behind closed doors because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Without fans, you’re always going to miss a bit of an edge to a football match. That’s to be expected. Overall, I was very pleased with the players application, their efforts. I felt we took it to Brentford. All week we worked on the moments of the game and how we’re going to have to have a mindset about us these nine games, and I felt that the players were superb in that really.
It’s clear that an empty stadium is a bit strange, and you’re not going to get what we’ve come to expect when we play football matches. But it is what it is at this moment in time, that’s the world we’re living in and you need to be adaptable and I thought the players adapted well to that.”
Attention now switches to another crunch clash against league leaders Leeds at Elland Road next weekend.
“Of course, it’s an important game, but today was important, the following week is going to be important, the next eight games left are going to be vitally important for us. They come no bigger because you’re playing against a team who are top of the table, the challenge is there for us.
Every week you have that. The games come thick and fast and they’re tough games. We’ll prepare this week as best we can, and we’ll go and try to put a performance in next week to try and win the game.”
