Source: Team_Talk
Fulham fans receive Roy reminder
Roy Hodgson asked for "sympathy and understanding" from Fulham fans after they booed his side off at half-time in Sunday's 2-1 win over Wigan. Fulham were losing 1-0 to Jason Scotland's 34th goal - his first in the Premier League for Wigan - and some elements of the Craven Cottage faithful were not happy with the performance of the home side.The Cottagers fought back to win the game with second-half goals from substitute Stefano Okaka and Brede Hangeland and will now concentrate on Thursday's Europa Cup quarter-final second-leg at Wolfsburg.However, Hodgson wanted to remind the Fulham fans that at some point before the end of the season, they might have to suffer a poor home performance."The crowd has been fantastic but you do hope sometimes that people show some degree of understanding for the level of difficulty people are being faced with," said Hodgson."I am just taking the moment really to remind the fans we do still try to give them everything but there is going to come a time in these last six games when I'm pretty sure we will disappoint them."I am afraid that sooner or later there is going to be a performance like the first half against Wigan which goes on for 90 minutes and we lose two or three-nil at home because these things are written in the stars."No team can go on and on and on. I am bit annoyed with myself for talking about it. I am just making the point that we have done so much this year that I know that sooner or later, we are going to hit a barrier that we are incapable of surmounting."We have got six more games in the league and I know they won't be at the level of the previous 54 or 55. All I am saying is that it would be nice if people showed some sympathy and understanding for that."They don't deserve people shouting 'wake-up'. It is not a question of waking-up, it is a question of getting tired legs going again in a tough Premier League game."The second-half fightback was even remarkable after Hodgson revealed that striker David Elm, who had been suffering from a virus, had to go to hospital at half-time.Hodgson admitted he should never have selected the tall striker."He was totally shattered at half-time," added Hodgson. "With hindsight I made the wrong decision playing him because he is in hospital at the moment on an ECG machine because the virus in his body is still there."I could see that he was struggling. I thought it was maybe because he had not played for a while and the pace of the game was beyond him."I suddenly realised at half-time I had made a big mistake and that I should never have thrust him into a game of this nature. The illness took more out of him than I thought."Wigan manager Roberto Martinez blamed lapses in concentration by his defence that allowed Fulham to win the game and leave Athletic perilously close the relegation zone."It is really frustrating," said Martinez. "The second-half we dropped our concentration in two key moments and if we do that we will get punished. I felt it was a self-inflicted defeat."The two lapses in concentration were unacceptable and the players know that. We had to work so hard to get the reward in the first-half."We knew the first 10 minutes of the second-half were going to be crucial but Fulham didn't have to do too much to get a reward."It is extremely disappointing when we gifted Fulham the two goals. We have two home games coming up and they are going to be vital."We showed today the good things we are capable and the bad things in the lack of concentration. That is something we have to eradicate."It is important we learn our lessons. At the moment the concentration we showed in the second-half means it is very difficult to get a result away from home. We need to keep the concentration and be a bit more ruthless."