Fulham boss Mark Hughes has admitted his side suffered following the withdrawal of Bobby Zamora in their 2-2 draw with Blackpool.
The Cottagers went ahead through the England striker in the first half and posed a real threat up front, however that was nullified somewhat by Zamora's injury forcing him to come off in the second half.
Clint Dempsey replaced him but they went on to concede two goals and only scraped a draw thanks to Dickson Etuhu's late leveller.
Zamora, who was watched by England boss Fabio Capello, had been leading the line well, but the Welshman conceded that once he had departed, his side lacked potency.
"We lost a little bit of our focus when Bobby went off. That disrupted us somewhat. But we are pleased with an away point and will build on that," he said.
"We haven't picked up that many points on the road over the years. It is something we hope to improve on. It is key to whether we have a decent season.
"In the second half we didn't play as well as we normally can, made a couple of mistakes and let them get back into the game."
Hughes also praised midfielder Etuhu, who scored Fulham's equaliser with a fine finish in the 87th minute, for his uncharacteristic forays forward in the game.
"It is good to see Dickson Etuhu getting on the end of something. He has not scored many goals in his career. We are trying to get him forward more.
"He's a big physical specimen and he takes some stopping once he's in his stride.
"We tried to encourage that this year and obviously he's got defensive duties that he's mindful of but if we release him at the right time, as we did with a fantastic ball from Moussa Dembele, who I thought was excellent, he can take chances if he's in positions like that."