Fulham boss Kit Symons was disappointed with Shaun Hutchinson’s rash challenge on Kazenga Lua-Lua that gave away the match winning penalty late on against Brighton and Hove Albion.
The Whites were pushing for a winner when Hutchinson brought down Lua-Lua in stoppage time and, although there was a debate over whether the foul occurred inside the penalty area, Symons was more critical of Hutchinson’s judgement than the referee’s.
“I have seen the penalty back a few times and it’s very difficult to call. Possibly the initial contact was just outside but he is travelling at pace and it’s quite hard to tell even stopping and rewinding it back from a couple of different angles, it’s hard to tell. I have no arguments with the award of the penalty but I have a few arguments with the defending that gave it away.
It was a rash challenge absolutely. He thought the initial contact was outside. I’m not going to complain about the referee giving it but Hutch knows it was a rash challenge at that stage of the game.”
Symons described Tonor Hemed’s late penalty as ‘a classic sucker punch’.
“In the first half we were poor, they were the better team, we rode our luck and were lucky to go in at 1-1 but saying that we could have gone it at 2-1 because Matty hit the post. We bucked our ideas up in the second half and upped our tempo, and it was obvious to everyone we were the better side at that stage and looked the most like winning. They made changes to shore it up and take a point but we got caught with a classic sucker-punch and I’m disappointed. We’ve got to our jobs at both ends of the pitch.
