Fulham ‘not clinical enough in both boxes’ – Jokanovic

Fulham boss Slavisa Jokanovic said his team lacked quality in both penalty areas in the 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa.

Former Chelsea captain John Terry headed in his first Villa goal midway through the first half and, after Stefan Johansen levelled with a free-kick on the stroke of half-time, Albert Adomah hit what proved to be the winner early in the second half.

Jokanovic was unhappy with the way his defence failed to pick up Terry for the first goal and was frustrated that Floyd Ayite missed a good opportunity to make it 2-2, only to be denied by an excellent point-blank save from keeper Sam Johnstone.

“I believe we weren’t clinical enough in both boxes,” he said.

“We missed our chances, we weren’t strong enough in our box too – they scored easily on the set piece for the first goal.

“We didn’t defend this situation. It’s not just John Terry, they are a really good team on set pieces and he punished us.

“We didn’t find enough of a good solution for [Jonathan] Kodjia. This is a key situation, where we didn’t show enough quality and enough personality.

“In the first 45 minutes, we found a problem with our build-up. We started play so many times with David Button and finished with long balls, which were normally lost.

“In the second half, we started to move the ball better. We dominated the game, we created some great chances but without scoring.

“When you start missing this kind of situation [the Ayite chance], it’s not easy to win the game. After this chance, we pushed to find a goal.

“I must be satisfied with the mentality and the desire. We pushed at the end of the game, we tried to score.”