Fulham manager Martin Jol joked that he did not want to complain about Southampton’s late equaliser at St Mary’s, for fear of invoking a heavy fine from the FA.
The Fulham boss was unhappy that his team were not awarded a free-kick in the build-up to the goal and it was the Saints who won a set-piece from which they made it 2-2 in the final minute.
“It was a free-kick. I know, because I thought at the time that we’d be fine,” the Dutchman said.
“Now we’ve got the ball, the pressure is gone and he acted as if he didn’t see it. Two seconds later it was a free-kick for them.
“I asked my people ‘can you say something in England’ but you can’t. You get in trouble and you pay fines. I’ve got good wages but I don’t want to pay these sort of fines. But you know exactly what happened.”
In spite of the disappointment on missing out on a second successive away win, Jol was delighted with the way his team fought back after a poor first half, which they finished trailing 1-0.
“I was very pleased with the resilience and the character and with the mental strength too,” he said.
“We did better in the second half. We stood up and we played again like we did before. We put them under pressure and my best players had the ball in the second half. Bryan Ruiz, Giorgos [Karagounis] did well and we played football.”
The Fulham boss can take satisfaction from the fact his team got a point without either Dimitar Berbatov or Mladen petric fit to play.
“Berbatov was very close because he told me on Monday that he’d probably play,” the Dutchman said.
“On Friday he still felt it and we didn’t want to take a risk. He came to me yesterday and he was doing a test today. Petric as well is in London. If they were fit they’d have travelled maybe to be on the bench, in Berbatov’s case maybe to play.
“But he’s on the fringe of being fit. Petric is called up for his national team so hopefully he stays fit but that is for two weeks.”
