Slavisa Jokanovic rued a mad minute as Fulham led a winning position slip against league leaders Brighton and Hove Albion at Craven Cottage this afternoon and lost ground on the Championship’s chasing pack.
The home side were in prime position to end the Seagulls’ superb seventeen match unbeaten run after Lucas Piazon tucked away a splendid opener ten minutes after the break, but were left to rue a first half penalty miss from Stefan Johansen and a couple of glaring defensive errors. Brighton substitute Toner Hemed converted a spot-kick after he was brought down by Ragnar Sigurdsson and Lewis Dunk headed a winner just a minute later to take the points back to the south coast.
Jokanovic, whose preparations were further disrupted by illness ruling out Michael Madl and Floyd Ayite after Chris Martin downed tools last week, had words of consolation for his team after they bossed much of the game but ended up on the losing side. The Serbian head coach told his post-match press conference:
We played very good football and dominated for many minutes, but we started to have problems on the field. We didn’t find enough quality solutions and they started to press us a little bit more strongly and be a little bit more solid, and they found a way to score two goals.
I believe we played very close to our maximum level. The squad has done a great job, they are working very hard, but in the end we didn’t find any compensation for this effort. More or less I have to be happy with our performance. I believe we are very close to our maximum level. If we want to push ourselves a little bit higher we have to use this transfer window which is in front of us.
