Fulham Coach Slavisa Jokanovic admitted that it didn’t click for Fulham at Villa Park on Saturday afternoon.
A fine Stefan Johansen free-kick had cancelled out John Terry’s opener, but the Whites returned to London empty handed courtesy of Albert Adomah’s early second half strike.
“We didn’t have enough quality, we weren’t brave enough playing from the back,” Jokanovics tated. “When they started to press us a little bit we played it back to the ‘keeper and went long ball. This is not the best choice for us.
“In the second half we showed more personality and we tried to move the ball. We got the ball in the opposite box but we weren’t clinical enough.
“The second goal that they scored came from a long ball which they controlled and many, many players could have scored the goal. We didn’t finish our chances and score the goal.
“They’re a physical, strong team, they’re fast. We didn’t find the quality to have an answer for [Jonathan] Kodjia and all the long balls he controlled.
“He always pushed us and he was the winner in this kind of situation. This is another situation that we didn’t control well enough, but more important is that we weren’t clinical in either box.”
Another concern was the forced withdrawal of goal scorer Johansen, but Jokanovic is optimistic the midfielder will be available when Bolton Wanderers visit Craven Cottage in seven days’ time.
“It’s some kind of groin problem,” he explained. “We’re going to assess him and I expect he’s going to be available for the game that’s in front of us.”