Fulham assistant manager Steve Kean was pleased with the Whites’ final match of their pre-season tour in Austria – as the Premiership side pushed Roma all the way in Kapfenberg.
The Londoners were cruelly denied a share of the spoils by substitute Davide Bombardini’s late winner but Kean told the club’s official website that there were plenty of positives to take from an excellent performance against the Serie A giants.
“It was a great exercise and a great experience for a lot of the younger players. “It’s not often you come up against a team that plays such a different style. It was good play against a typical Italian team.”
The Scot waxed lyrical about Louis Saha’s superb equaliser.
“It was a fantastic goal. Again, it came from good pressure on the ball which eventually fell to Louis. He made a sweet connection and it flew in like a bullet – there was no spin on the ball whatsoever.
Their winning goal was bad from our point of view because we didn’t pressurise the ball in midfield. Their lad took a long-range shot which bounced awkwardly on the goal line. In the last few seconds we took a short corner and Malik Buari flashed in one of his dangerous crosses. Had any of our players got their head to it, we would have scored an equaliser, but it wasn’t meant to be.”
