Danny Murphy thought that the draw rescued by Brede Hangeland’s dramatic late headed goal against Aston Villa on Saturday was a fair outcome on an afternoon when he and his team-mates struggled to meet the exceptionally high standards they had set with last weekend’s impressive 2-0 victory over Wigan Athletic.
“It wasn’t one of our better days at the office,” admitted the Fulham skipper. “In the first-half we had a few chances but didn’t convert them. Villa grew in stature, obviously got the goal, and when you concede at home to anyone in the Premier League you give yourself a mountain to climb.
“That said, we felt a little hard-done-by going in at half-time a goal down because we thought chances had been about even, even though we knew we hadn’t played well.
“But I thought we played better after half-time. We got in their last third better, although the ball didn’t quite fall for us. AJ had a couple of opportunities and myself and Clint had a couple of half-chances, but we were starting to get the feeling it wasn’t going to be our day.
“Villa are very dangerous on the break, and they could have killed us off on a couple of occasions in the last 15 minutes, but we had to take risks at that point to try and get back in the game. Fortunately our desire and hunger to not lose was very evident. Everyone carried on trying hard to make things happen even though it wasn’t going for us, and we eventually got the goal off the set play.
“On another day, if we’d put one of our chances away in the first-half, everything would have been a lot more comfortable, but it wasn’t meant to be. Sometimes you have to be grateful for a point, and today is one of those days. There’s no point trying to kid ourselves that we deserve more, because I don’t think we do.”
The relief of the fans in the stands brought to mind some of the classic late goals of recent times. But as entertaining as such drama might be to the spectator, Murphy insists it’s a habit that Fulham are hoping to kick.
“We’ve won points with late goals a lot this season, and it’s great that we have that togetherness to keep fighting to the end, but we don’t really want to have to keep coming from behind like this. Obviously, sometimes in the season you are going to face quality opposition and you will lose games, but when we’re at home we like to think we can give anyone a match.
“Today we weren’t at the same level as we were last week and that was disappointing because we set our standards against Wigan and today we didn’t maintain them.
“We did show good spirit, but we know we have to improve. Sometimes when you’ve played well and won as comfortably as we did last week, you go into the next game a bit complacent and I thought that happened today, but we can’t let that happen again because in the Premier League you get punished.
“But let’s be positive about the fact that we didn’t get beaten.”
The team now face a busy week with away trips to Chelsea, on Wednesday, and Newcastle next Saturday, and the Whites Captain is keen to assure fans that he and his colleagues will be ready to demonstrate the same fighting spirit in both of them, starting of course, with the SW6 derby.
“They’ll both be different games to this,” he said. “At home, we always fancy ourselves, but away from home we know it will be a bit more difficult.
“We might have to be a bit more defence-minded against a team like Chelsea because they have such quality. So we’ll have to be well organised, make sure we’ve got good shape and discipline and work really hard to keep a clean sheet - because we know we’re going to be under the cosh for long periods – but of course try and cause a threat at the same time.
“But we’re looking forward to it. We know it’s a big derby and it’s about time we got something there. We were close last year, 1-0 up at half-time and only losing out because of that unfortunate own goal from Chris Smalling.
“It’s something the players are looking forward to. I’m just hoping that the lads that took knocks today can be fit. We seem to be having some bad luck in that respect at the moment and Carlos and Bairdy are the latest victims – neither are the type to come off just for a niggle, so we’ll have to wait and see what their situations are.
“We’re backs-to-the-walls at the minute, so we need to remember what we’ve got – a good squad and a good spirit and we’ll go to Chelsea and Newcastle and give it everything because we need more points on the board, and we’ve got to show our fighting spirit for the fans.”