A crestfallen Sylvain Legwinski slammed Fulham for letting a two-goal lead slip against Newcastle United at Loftus Road last night.

The French midfielder insisted that the Whites got exactly what they deserved after taking their foot off the pedal having gone 2-0 up.

“It was a very, very bad game for us. I think you have to say that Newcastle were in a better shape than we were – they deserved the three points. We started very well, but perhaps that made us over-confident, I don’t know.
But whatever the reason, for the rest of the game we just didn’t seem to be able to cope with them when they came forward.

Newcastle had tremendous pace and we never really dealt with it properly – I think that was the main difference between the two sides. But we had problems in midfield, we weren’t in control and we weren’t winning our challenges, and when it’s like that you can’t expect to win the game.

But it wasn’t just about how well Newcastle played, we didn’t play well enough ourselves. When we went 2-0 up, with the quality of our passing we should have been able to keep the ball and control the game, but we weren’t able to do it.”

The experienced and combative midfielder is determined to move on after the disappointment of this defeat – although facing Manchester United next is far from ideal.

“We have to forget Newcastle now. We have a very tough game at Old Trafford and we have to concentrate just on that and make sure we get a positive result up there. In a way the pressure will be off because everyone will expect us to lose. But all that matters to us is that we know we have a quality team here, and we have to prove to everyone that we can do better. That is very important to us.

“Of course everyone is bitterly disappointed at the moment. We had a good opportunity to climb the table and we didn’t take it, now is the perfect opportunity to show what we can really do.”