Fulham Head Coach Scott Parker felt disappointed by the performance of his side for the first time this season following the 3-0 loss at the hands of a ruthless Hull City side on Saturday afternoon.
After the strong point away from home last week in the North-East the Head Coach was looking for his team to build on the result but felt his side was a little flat at the Cottage this afternoon.
“This is the first time this season where I sit here disappointed,” Parker reflected. “Obviously with the way the game went and the way things panned out there is not much I can say.
“We were not where we needed to be today. We have had defeats at home this year but today I felt we were flat.
“We were playing against arguably the best counter-attacking team in the division and the players up front for them exploited that, certainly for their first goal.
“You go down a goal down in this division it proves difficult and today that’s what happened.
“We have come off a positive result at Middlesbrough, albeit a draw where I was really pleased with the team’s desire and attitude.
“A game of football is always difficult when you go a goal down early on.
“We are disappointed with the way the goal went in. They exploited how flat we were and ultimately, what will determine how successful I am personally and how successful this team is, will be moments like this.
“A cliché as it is, we have to bounce back and go again next week.”
After going into the break one goal behind Fulham came out in the second half looking to fight their way back into the encounter.
However, after dominant 10 minute opening a punishing counter-attack saw the lead doubled for the Tigers.
“I felt like when they scored their second goal, we were in the ascendancy,” he said. “Mitro has a good chance on the stroke of half-time, which didn’t fall for us.
“At the time, I felt if we can stick with the way we wanted to play and get in the right areas, we will break this team down, but it wasn’t the case and they went and scored a second.
“We tried to mix up the game and put it in wide areas and then went a little bit more direct later on in the game.
“They dealt with it well. Teams come here and we are a big scalp for them and we need to be ready for a battle each week.”
When asked about his style of play and philosophy in his post-match press conference the Head Coach was quick to point out that the possession leads to opportunities on goal.
“I hear a lot that this team is a possession based team,” he stated. “That we lack an impetuous.
“ We are top in this division in shots on goal, shots on target.
“We are obviously doing something right. We are getting the ball into the right areas.
“No other team in this league is hitting the target more than us.
“I hear people saying our possession game is slow.
“I would understand peoples opinion regarding how I want to play and also the identity of how this team wants to play if we weren’t creating chances and hitting the target.
“From the first week people have been pointing fingers regarding this element of our game.
“Yes we have a lot of possession and if I feel like we carry on like that things will turn for us.
“That is the team I want us to be.
“We lost the game fair and square. We weren’t anywhere near the level we needed to be and that’s it.”