Slavisa Jokanovic refused to blame Aleksandar Mitrovic after the Serbian striker gave away a late penalty as Fulham blew a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 at Brighton and Hove Albion this afternoon.

Mitrovic had earlier scored his fourth goal of the season to put Fulham 2-0 up at the AMEX Stadium, but turned villain with six minutes of the game to go after handling in his own box to concede the penalty from which Glenn Murray levelled the scores. Jokanovic told his post-match press conference that Mitrovic didn’t need to apologise to his team-mates:

In the end we gave them some kind of present, it’s really bad luck, Mitrovic touched the ball with his hand and he completed a really good game, scored a good goal, fighting well, this is part of football too and we must accept and try to fix some of the problems that we found during the game today.

It’s hard for him, he touched the ball in our box with his hand but it’s part of football too. These kind of mistakes are bad luck, it happens and he is strong enough not to be affected so much after this kind of situation, I am focussed on another part of the work, he scored another goal, he was fighting well, he was our target man and participated a lot, he must be satisfied.

The Fulham admitted to mixed emotions after seeing his side pegged back from a position of strength.

We had some mixed sensations. After playing one hour very well, we showed our professionalism and after we were really solid we were then in some kind of trouble as we made important and sloppy mistakes and we paid an expensive price.

We must be satisfied we won a point for the first time in a Premier League game away from home and be unsatisfied completely in this kind of result away from home. We want to show our ambition and our ambition for our supporters too, they go home with mixed sensations and won’t be completely satisfied. It’s a great achievement for us, playing in the most important league in the world, now this is not enough, we want to win games and this is leaves us unsatisfied.