Fulham first-team coach Billy McKinlay was left to rue a slow start from his side in their 4-0 defeat by Everton at Goodison Park.
Coach concedes Cottagers deserved to lose at Goodison Park
Fulham first-team coach Billy McKinlay was left to rue a slow start from his side in their 4-0 defeat by Everton at Goodison Park.
The Cottagers went into the game on Saturday full of confidence following a four-game unbeaten run but found themselves 2-0 down within 16 minutes thanks to goals from Nikica Jelavic and Marouane Fellaini.
Jelavic's second of the game just before the break put the result beyond doubt before Tim Cahill rounded off a miserable afternoon on Merseyside for the Londoners midway through the second half.
McKinlay was standing in for manager Martin Jol, who missed the match with a chest infection, and admitted after the game that his side's poor start left them with a mountain to climb.
"I think we were slow out of the blocks and right from the off Everton put us under a lot of pressure," McKinlay told
Sky Sports.
"We conceded some poor goals to say the least and that was really the recipe for a poor afternoon.
"We've been on a good run of form but quite simply we never turned up.
Pressure
"We never got started, credit to Everton they put us under pressure and thoroughly deserved the win."
The game at Goodison was Fulham's 52nd of a season that began back in June with a Europa League qualifier against NSI Runavik.
However, any suggestions of tiredness were quickly played down by McKinlay, who conceded his side simply did not play well enough.
When asked whether fatigue was a factor in the defeat the Scot insisted: "I don't think so, if you look at all aspects of the game we hold our hands up and say that we have come up short today.
"Everyone has played a similar amount of games, we've been in a good vein of form so it was just really, really disappointing from start to finish
"I think we will analyse why we went wrong and why we played so poorly, that's the most important thing.
"The guys are disappointed in there but thankfully we've got a game on Tuesday so we can hopefully bounce back."
