Fulham FC
Fulham Head Coach Scott Parker felt his side didn’t deserve to progress to the next round of the Emirates FA Cup following a 3-0 defeat against Burnley on Sunday afternoon.
A rugged and well-structured Burnley side was able to dominate the afternoon’s proceedings, and our Head Coach was quick to stress his team fell short of the standards that have been developing over recent weeks.
“Look, it was a tough day,” Parker said. “I don’t think we deserved anything out of the game to be honest with you.
“We fell well short of the standards that we are used to seeing.
“We all understood the challenges we were going to be facing today and we weren’t ever able to get a foothold in the game.
“Burnley were well worthy of the win.
“We couldn’t deal with long balls, first and foremost. They put you under a lot of pressure with long balls and we struggled with them.
“The conditions played their part, but I don’t think it was really about that. We just came up short today.
“Certainly when you come up against Burnley, you will be facing a battle. You need to win that side of the game to give yourself a foothold in the game.
“I mean first balls, second balls. We weren’t able to do that. So we were never able to put our print on the game.
“After that, mistakes happen and they score their goals.
“We have tightened up very well. But today we were on the end of three goals. That’s it.
“We will regroup, get together as a squad and come out fighting next week. We will be ready.
“We are out the cup now. It’s a competition I wanted to stay in. Another home tie was waiting for us after this one. But it wasn’t meant to be and we dust ourselves off and concentrate on a big remainder of the season.”
All attention now turns to a pivotal week back in the league. With two matches in quick succession, starting with a clash with Brighton & Hove Albion on Wednesday night, Parker wants his side to re-focus and prepare for a vital run in.
“We have some massive games coming up for us now,” he insisted. “Every game is going to be massive for us this year.
“We have to draw a line under today.
“We have to go full steam and have full focus on Brighton, West Brom and the other games coming up in the league.”