Scott Parker bemoans ‘silly goals’ in 3-1 defeat by Aston Villa as Aleksandar Mitrovic admits players are ‘angry with themselves’ after letting 1-0 lead slip… but Fulham boss insists there will be more ‘bumps in the road’ in Premier League relegation battle
Scott Parker insisted there will be more ‘bumps in the road’ after Fulham‘s hopes of Premier League survival took a battering at Aston Villa.
Parker’s side led through Aleksander Mitrovic’s goal just past the hour mark but they found themselves behind as Trezeguet netted in the 78th and 81st minutes after a defensive lapse from Tosin Adarabioyo.
Ollie Watkins then added a third before the full-time to leave Fulham three points adrift of safety with seven games to play. While Parker said it will be ‘easy’ to pick his players up after the defeat, he bemoaned the ‘silly goals’ they conceded at Villa Park.
Scott Parker bemoaned the ‘silly’ goals his side conceded in their 3-1 defeat by Aston Villa
Fulham took the lead on the hour mark but Trezeguet scored twice in three minutes to put Villa 2-1 ahead
‘(It was) a poor 15 minutes from us. The game ebbed and flowed until our goal. I’m disappointed with the way it goes. It’s easy, silly goals that have let us down today,’ Parker said.
‘I’ve got half an idea (what went wrong). At certain moments you need to understand where you are as a team and we didn’t manage that situation well. At certain times you need a grit, you need an understanding, you need to be horrible.
‘It’s clear to see the way I want my team to play but there’s always two sides to a football match. At one point we were walking away with a point here and we were sloppy at those moments.
Three points would have taken Fulham out of the bottom three but the remain 18th in the table
‘We managed the game at certain moments but there needs to be something more at some moments. It’s a young team but there was naive, silly mistakes at certain moments. You can lose football matches but there’s a way to lose football matches.
‘Easy (to pick the team up after this). Disappointment today. We put ourselves in an unbelivable position, there’s always going to be bumps and this is a bump. How we react to these times is going to define our season. We’ve had many bumps. That’s no different when we get up tomorrow and we get in tomorrow.
‘Ultimately there’s seven games left and everything to play for. There’ll be more bumps but I also believe we’ll have good ones as well.’
Mitrovic scored his first goal since September to put Fulham ahead and admitted the players were ‘angry’ with the way they let the game get away from them.
Aleksandr Mitrovic admitted the players were angry with themselves for letting their slead slip after his first goal since September put them ahead
‘(We’re) really sad, disappointed and angry with ourselves. We had good 60 minutes and we score a goal and normally this season we defend really well but today some mistakes and two goals in 15 minutes.
‘There is no time to cry a lot, we have to dust ourselves, keep going and keep believing. We have to learn from this.
‘Seven games left so lot to play. We are three points from the place we want to be and we play in the Premier League and against every team we can win, there is a lot of things to be positive about. This was not the right result tonight but still lots of points to play for.’