Hughes berates leaky defence as plucky Fulham show heart
FRUSTRATED Manchester City boss Mark Hughes pointed the finger of blame at his defence after Fulham rallied from 2-0 down to secure an unlikely point at Eastlands.
Goals from Joleon Lescott and Martin Petrov inside seven second half minutes put Hughes’ men in cruise control, only for plucky Fulham to fight back with goals from Damien Duff and Clint Dempsey.
Indeed it could have been worse as the visitors were left to rue a miss by Bobby Zamora, described as “horrific” by Fulham boss Roy Hodgson.
Despite their embarrassment of riches, City have now gone seven matches without keeping a clean sheet and Hughes were clearly not happy with his side’s inability to handle Fulham’s aerial threat.
“We were 2-0 to the good and we should have seen the game out. It was how we dealt with balls into the box and Fulham have a guy in Dempsey who is acknowledged as good in the air and we haven’t dealt with it.”
Hughes added, however: “Credit to Fulham, the two matches we’ve had most difficulty with this season has been against them.”