Gordon Strachan, having been jettisoned by Coventry City, has plainly plunged in at the deep end with Southampton. He made no excuses for a defeat which, football being the odd game it is, could well have turned into a draw.
"The better team won," he admitted. "The more technical side, the passing side, the quicker side. If we'd been a luckier side, we might have got away with something."
He was not alone, however, in believing that Southampton, late in the second half, should have had a penalty, when Rufus Brevett appeared to handle a shot by substitute Dan Petrescu.
Overall, a bright, adventurous, adroit Fulham team dominated the game, and should have scored several more goals than the two they did. Finishing still seems to be their problem. But there is abundant talent in the team.
Steed Malbranque scored both Fulham's goals, and would have scored a third, in the second half, had it not been for Southampton's goalkeeper, Paul Jones.
It is much to the credit of Barry Hayles that he has been able to hold a place in the Fulham attack with so much Gallic talent at Craven Cottage. Indeed, it was not until the second half that Louis Saha, previously Fulham's most prolific and exciting player, could get into the match as a substitute.
Hayles brought about the first goal on 25 minutes, when he cut in powerfully from the right and walloped a shot which Jones saved, only for Steve Marlet to nod down for Malbranque to score. Hayles also worked endlessly and unselfishly, dropping into deeper positions and setting up his colleagues.
Fulham could well have gone ahead on the quarter-hour when Malbranque cleverly sent the ball through, only for Marlet to shoot just wide of the right-hand post. Five minutes later it seemed there might be hope for Southampton when Fulham's Dutch goalkeeper, Edwin van der Sar, towering though he is, hopelessly missed a left-wing cross but got away with it. Sometimes one feels that Dutch goalkeepers have succeeded Scotland's as objects of obloquy. In the second half Southampton so nearly equalised on 74 minutes, when van der Sar drifted off his line, enabling Anders Svensson to lob over his head a ball that came back from the bar.
When, at the same stage of the first half, Southampton equalised, it was a curious kind of goal. Tahar El Khalej headed a ball out, and it caught the defence on the wrong foot, enabling James Beattie to run on and beat van der Sar with ease.
Almost at once, however, Fulham regained their lead. Steve Finnan crossed from the right, El Khalej couldn't get the ball away, and Malbranque shot powerfully, left-footed, into the net.
Fulham made numerous chances in the second half. In the space of a minute, Hayles made the running for a shot by Luis Boa Morte, which came back from a post, and then fashioned a chance for Saha, who beat Jones to the ball, but put it over the top.
As for the possible penalty, it came when Petrescu shot, and Brevett appeared to block it with an arm.
Yet still Fulham were not home and dry; still they needed that third goal to preserve their advantage. In the closing minutes Marian Pahars had a chance, only to shoot past a post, though Boa Morte, with his left foot, did the same at the other end.
"I think our hearts kept us in a position," said Strachan, "Plus the bad finishing, when we could have sneaked something."
But, as he said, it would have been an injustice to Fulham.
Fulham:
Van der Sar, Finnan, Brevett, Melville, Goma, Collins, Legwinski, Malbranque, Marlet (Saha h-t), Boa Morte, Hayles
Southampton: Jones, Dodd, Bridge, Lundekvam (Williams 35min), El Khalej, Delap, Oakley, Tessem (Petrescu 56min), Beattie (Davies 72min), Svensson, Pahars
Scorers:
Fulham: Malbranque 25, 33
Southampton: Beattie 32
Referee: A D'Urso Attendance: 18,771
Source Sunday Times by Brian Glanville