Jokanovic encouraged by Fulham’s improvement

Fulham boss Slavisa Jokanovic felt Scott Malone’s injury-time equaliser against Sheffield Wednesday typified a new-found resilience in his team.

Left-back Malone drilled in to earn the Whites a point to cancel out Fernando Forestieri’s 10th-minute opener.

Jokanovic admitted his team had struggled against Wednesday’s attack, with Forestieri, Gary Hooper and Barry Bannan all prominent, but believed they would have crumbled last season.

He said: “We weren’t solid enough and especially we found so many problems with Sheffield Wednesday’s strikers. They protect the ball, they won in the challenges.

“But if we played this game last season we’d have lost 3-0 or something.

“We didn’t offer our best performance but on the other hand I am very satisfied we didn’t surrender in any moment.

“We are unhappy at the end because in the last five minutes we could have scored a second goal to win the game.”

Jokanovic was also unhappy his side were not given a penalty in the first half after Stefan Johansen went down as he tried to latch on to Tom Cairney’s through ball.

“It’s very clear a player has pulled the shirt of Stefan Johansen,” Jokanovic said.

“The referee was in a very good position. I saw this situation, all the stadium saw this situation, but for some reason he didn’t point to the penalty spot.

“If you pull the shirt in the box the rules say very clearly it’s a penalty. It’s a big mistake in a dangerous moment for us.”