Fulham boss Slavisa Jokanovic was in no mood to defend his players and criticised the spirit that his side showed after a 3-0 loss at Blackburn that means the Cottagers remain six points above the relegation zone.

The writing appeared on the wall when Ben Marshall scored a penalty he had won himself after a quarter of an hour and Rovers eased to victory after second half strikes from Shane Duffy and Danny Graham ended their nine-match winless run. Jokanovic didn’t offer any excuses for what was a pretty gutless visiting display.

He said: “I have to be disappointed. I say sorry to our fans who travelled to watch this game today because today was nothing special. We played without spirit, without desire and this is very important to win the game.

“We lacked spirit when they scored the first goal and we didn’t play good football at any moment in the game. They pushed us and won all the challenges. We didn’t try to play football, we didn’t do anything important today.

It is a bad sensation. Today we played the worst phase of my month in charge. This game is without any spirit or any display. With this desire, spirit, competitiveness, it is not enough for anything.”