Tom Cairney was hurting after Saturday’s tough afternoon at the office.
An eighth minute red card for Nathaniel Chalobah set the tone for a fortuneless outing at Craven Cottage, with Newcastle United scoring three times before the break.
“It was difficult,” Cairney admitted. “I think you could say it’s our first bad feeling we’ve had after getting promoted. These things can happen.
“It was a very, very early red card so you’re basically playing 90 minutes with a man less, but I feel like we could have dealt with the situation a lot better with 10 men in the first half.
“The game was a massive uphill battle from half-time really.”
Fulham improved in the second period but the damage had already been done. Cairney is keen to move on quickly, though.
“We had our moments I suppose in the second half,” he said. “We pushed for a goal and managed to get one near the end.
“It was definitely a better performance in the second half, but you’re not going to win Premier League games if you’re 3-0 down at half-time. We knew it was damage limitation a little bit.
“We take some encouragement from the second half but we obviously move onto next week now because we can’t be too down. It’s been a very good start to the season and we need to bounce back quickly.”
To compound things for the Whites, Aleksandar Mitrović was substituted after just 37 minutes.
Marco Silva said post-match that it was too early for a prognosis, and Cairney joined everyone in hoping it was nothing serious: “We need him. He’s our top goal scorer, he’s third top goal scorer in the league, so hopefully he’s back as soon as possible.”
