Scott Parker professed himself ‘disappointed’ after his Fulham side were denied a famous win over Liverpool by a late Mo Salah spot-kick – but believes having to settle for a point against the defending champions shows how far his team have come.

The Fulham boss was delighted with his side’s adventure and commitment as they took the game to Liverpool during a lively first half, where they could easily have been ahead by more than Bobby Decordova-Reid’s venomous drive. That the Whites were penned back for long periods of the second period was to be expected, but – speaking to Sky Sports after the final whistle – Parker was delighted with his side’s showing.

I feel a bit disappointed. The players do as well. It shows how far we’ve come. There were two different halves. The first half, we were every bit of what we needed – commitment, energy, desire, passion. We showed a real quality and caused Liverpool problems.

The second half panned out like everyone expected. Overall I’m very pleased. We came out of the blocks flying today. We showed our quality. We can play. I thought we did that very well in the first half.

Parker was also non-plussed by Andre Marriner’s decision not to award Fulham a penalty when Fabinho brought down Ivan Cavaleiro, even though the referee was advised to go and view the incident on the pitchside monitor.

At real speed I didn’t think it was a penalty. I didn’t even contemplate it. But it’s gone to VAR asking him to check the monitor. I’ve seen it, I don’t understand how he hasn’t given a penalty. Their player had to hit my player’s foot to get the ball. I don’t understand how we can have a discussion about that penalty. I understand in real time but we have VAR.

Parker feels the point proves that Fulham are gradually becoming far more competitive as they adjust to life in the top flight.

We were resilient today. We closed up. We’ve all seen late goals [from Liverpool], a real endeavour to score the winner but we stood strong. Last three games – Leicester, Manchester City and Liverpool – I don’t think anyone would have given us a chance. We’ve got four points from those three games that people wouldn’t have believed