Fulham boss Roy Hodgson was full of praise for his side despite going down to Tottenham 3-1 in their FA Cup quarter-final replay.
The Cottagers were the better side in the opening 45 minutes at White Hart Lane and deservedly led at the break through Bobby Zamora.
But Spurs fought back in the second half and won the game with goals from David Bentley, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Eidur Gudjohnsen.
"I can quite happily give my players credit for playing so well against them [Tottenham] during the course of the 90 minutes," said Hodgson.
"I thought we played really well in the first half and were good value for our one goal lead - but unfortunately conceding so early in the second half gave Spurs some momentum.
"They ended up scoring two more goals and towards the end of the game I thought we came back very strongly and we were dominating the game during the final stages.
"We were playing against a good team today and I think we matched them throughout the game but we paid the price for a couple of mistakes. We were punished by people scoring magnificent goals.
"We didn't lose the game through fatigue or lack of mental alertness - we lost the game basically because we conceded two wonder goals, and then, in the aftermath, they unfortunately got the third goal.
"If the third goal hadn't of gone in, and with the pressure we were exerting towards the end of the game, I think there would have been quite a bit of panic in the Tottenham team. However they were never really threatened because they had that two-goal cushion."