Fulham facing ‘nine wars’, says Jokanovic

Slavisa Jokanovic apologised to Fulham’s fans after the home defeat to Bristol City – and demanded his players go to ‘war’ in the final nine games of the season.

Fulham, who led 1-0 at the break, allowed fellow strugglers City to leapfrog them in the Championship table after an equaliser by Marlon Pack and a 90th-minute free-kick from Lee Tomlin.

A loud chorus of boos sounded around Craven Cottage on the final whistle and Jokanovic admitted the performance had not been good enough.

He said: “I can say sorry to Fulham fans because they have been, all the time, with us.

“They push us, they tried to help us, but we didn’t give them enough for this support.

“Generally we started the game very well. We played good football and scored the goal.

“But we didn’t control the second half. We started really confused and made many mistakes.”

Fulham are now only a point clear of the relegation zone with nine games remaining and Jokanovic admitted his players will need to roll up their sleeves and drag themselves out of the perilous situation they find themselves in.

He said: “We are in a relegation battle, this is now really clear. It’s nine wars in front of us, we need to be ready for this kind of situation.

“Nobody is going to arrive from outside to fix this problem. It depends on me, it depends on my players.

“We need to play with more mentality and be men. Being scared is not good for nothing.”