Fulham captain Danny Murphy has voiced his and the rest of the squad’s frustration at being held to another draw, this time by Sunderland.
The frustration was made worse on Saturday as The Cottagers were on top for most of the second-half.
Fulham saw a Dickson Etuhu header cleared off the line and only an excellent save from Simon Mignolet denied a shot from Andy Johnson, amongst a number other goalbound efforts in an exciting display, but at the end of 90 minutes, the team were forced to settle for their 10th draw of the season.
“We’re very frustrated and it’s becoming a familiar story,” he reflected ruefully on the club’s website.
“I thought in the first-half we were a little bit nervy, which was understandable because they are the confident side at the moment. But still, we weren’t in real trouble and we looked reasonably comfortable defensively. Of course, at home you want to start on the front foot and we didn’t quite do that, but we certainly weren’t in any danger, and it was positive to go in without conceding for once, and then we thought we could kick on in the second-half.
“This season the trend has been that we’ve played better in the second-half kicking towards the Hammersmith End and that was the case again. I can barely remember Mark [Schwarzer] having a save to make in the second-half, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be.”
For, despite enjoying the lion’s share of possession and 45 minutes of sustained pressure, much like the visit of Birmingham City a fortnight earlier, Fulham just couldn’t find the elusive winning goal.
“People talk about not having the rub of the green, and that’s how it feels at the moment,” considered the skipper.
“We got the ball in their box a lot and created chances, but they put their bodies on the line, they cleared a couple off the goal-line, and Clint says the guy handballed it when he shot from AJ’s pull-back, so little things aren’t quite going for us.
“But at the end of the day, it’s scoring goals that wins you matches and we haven’t been doing that enough. Let’s be honest, we’ve drawn too many.
“Again we’re talking about a reasonably good performance and a dominant second-half display, but we haven’t come away with the points, so there’s a big disappointment in the dressing room. This week in training we’ll have to try and take some positives from this and go to Liverpool with confidence.”
“The one thing you can say about the past few weeks is that the performances have definitely improved,” said Murphy. “We’ve looked much more comfortable in the games we’ve played in terms of our football, but the points haven’t reflected that.
“So we need to not get too down on ourselves, even though we are as disappointed as the fans, because we don’t want to be near the bottom of the League and we need to get away from there as soon as possible. But to do that we’re going to need to start winning some games.
“As we’ve said in the changing rooms, we will play worse than that and win games. Maybe at the moment we don’t need a good performance, we just need a win, even if that’s with a bad performance.
“So we’ll go to Liverpool, we’ll fight and we’ll try to play like we did in the second-half today and hopefully get something. They have a few injury problems at the moment and we can maybe capitalise on those.”
Saturday’s trip to Merseyside is the first of five fixtures in 18 days over the festive period, a crucial time of the season for shaping a club’s destiny.
“It will be a tough Christmas with all the games coming thick and fast, but hopefully, by the time the New Year comes we’ll have a more positive league position,” he stated.
“But I thought, overall, we deserved to win the game. The fans got right behind us – especially in the second half – and we nearly gave them something to go home happy with, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be.
“But we’ll move on and we’ll keep going, because that’s what we have to do. There’s no other way.”
