Fulham Head Coach Scott Parker was understandably gutted with the late suckerpunch that defeated Fulham on Friday night.
The players were visibly distraught after Adama Traore’s stoppage time winner for Wolverhampton Wanderers, but when asked if it would be hard to bounce back, our Head Coach remained defiant.
“It’s a tough one to take. It’s not going to be a tough one to bounce back from,” he insisted. “It’s a painful one tonight and you obviously see that in the scenes at the end of the game, in terms of this team, how desperate this team are to be successful.
“I asked the team to show fight, to show desire, to leave everything on that pitch tonight, and to a man – and I include the boys who were on the side – we did that. That’s the cruel side of football sometimes.
“I’m older than these players, I’ve not just experienced painful things in football, I’ve experienced them in life as well. What’s going to be the deciding factor when you get put to the canvas, the real character of someone is to get back up, and we’re going to have to do that.
“We’ve done that for large parts of this year. When the chips are down and we’ve been put down, we get back up and we fight and we carry on doing that. The narrative will be that this was a must-win game, of course it was, but next week’s going to be a must-win game as well.
“We’ve put ourselves in this position, with a real fighting chance, because of what you’ve seen at the end of the game, a team and a group of players that are desperate, that care passionately about us being successful this year, and with that spirit and with that desire, you’ve always got a chance.
“You’ve always got a chance. And that will be our mantra, and we will continue.
“It’s painful, we’re hurt, disappointed tonight, but as always when this happens, you get your guard up and you come out swinging. And that’s what we’ll do.”
Fulham had twice as many attempts on goal as Wolves in what proved to be a frustrating encounter.
“I thought we did everything,” Parker said. “[They’re an] organised team, limited them to very few chances, and the longer the game goes on, we commit more men, we want to win the game, and a ball that drops either side doesn’t quite fall for us.
“And then the game’s decided in the last minute when their boy has gone through at a tight angle and smashed one straight through.
“That’s painful, of course, but my team did everything in their powers tonight to try and nullify Wolves who’ve got talented players, which we did, and on the flip side of that they tried their hardest to win the game.”