Magath again blames officials after defeat
Under-fire Fulham boss Felix Magath again blamed the officials following his team’s latest defeat.
The German pointed the finger at the referee after Saturday’s loss at Reading in which Matt Smith was sent off on his debut.
And this time he fumed that Shaun Hutchinson’s seemingly well-timed challenge on Nottingham Forest’s Michael Antonio resulted in a penalty and set the tone for the 5-3 loss at the City Ground.
“I wrote a letter to the referees. Okay, what happens then? Nothing. Maybe the referees are angry and give you another yellow card or red card. I don’t know,” said Magath.
“If that is British fairness, then okay I have to take it.” – Felix Magath
“It is always a problem for a team if you are booked early in a game, then you are not as confident and you cannot do as well as before.
“They give us a penalty that was never a penalty, all of our players know that so you feel not very good if you are at an away game and have the fans against you and referee against you.
“If that is British fairness, then okay I have to take it.”
After an astonishing match in which Fulham fought back from two goals down to lead 3-2 before eventually losing, Magath remained defiant in the face of increasing pressure.
The former Bayern Munich coach said the performance, in which club-record signing Ross McCormack netted twice and Hugo Rodallega scored on his return to the starting starting line-up, was proof of his side’s capabilities.
Fulham are yet to win a Championship game, having collected just one point from seven matches, and fans have called for Magath to go.
“I can understand it. I am very sad we are bottom of the table and only have one point,” he said.
“It is terrible; terrible for me and terrible for the players and the supporters.”
He added: “We were very strong, we were leading but we missed chances to make the fourth goal and the game would have been finished if we scored again.
“But we made a mistake and they came back. I prefer to analyse the game from beginning to the end it was not the first time that the decision of the referee was unfortunately wrong. It was never a penalty and that affects the game.
“It was very good from the team, after this wrong decision, to come back. We were then in front we were the better team and were playing very well but we didn’t score.
“We are so close to a win so we are very disappointed with the mistakes.”
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