Warnock punishes Fulham for familiar late failing

Fulham 2  Blackburn Rovers 2:Fulham's litany of what-ifs makes painful reading even for the neutral. This was the seventh match in which the club has failed to turn a winning position into victory, squandering 17 points along the way, reports Matt Scott from Craven Cottage.

If Lawrie Sanchez' men made the most of their opportunities they would now be in the Champions League positions. That would put them ahead even of their neighbours Chelsea. Instead they have achieved only two wins this season, against Bolton Wanderers and Reading, and another season of toil is taking shape.

Not, though, in Sanchez' eyes, who points instead to the fact that his team have lost fewer matches than any of his fellow strugglers. "We're 10 minutes away from being a very, very good side," he said.

"In the last 10 minutes we're vulnerable. But that's not just us, that's football. Look at England: 13 minutes away from the European Championship and they can't hold on."

Sanchez ridiculed Blackburn boss Mark Hughes's complaints that Fulham's penalty should not have been awarded and that Diomansy Kamara's goal might have been offside.

The penalty was the catalyst for a match that had stagnated in the first half to come alive. Kamara failed to connect with the a centre from the left but was hit by the follow-through of Ryan Nelsen's tackle. Mike Dean awarded the penalty, which Danny Murphy emphatically dispatched.

Murphy was the source of Fulham's second. When he deftly played in Steven Davis, Kamara was in an offside position but was behind the ball when the Northern Irishman's swept centre picked out the Senegalese striker six yards from goal and unchallenged.

Sanchez claimed Jason Roberts had been offside when his flicked header from Stephen Warnock's cross gave Brett Emerton the platform to score Rovers' first equaliser. Shefki Kuqi missed a chance to wrap the three points up for Fulham with 10 minutes to go. But Fulham's superiority could not be sustained and when Roberts tricked his way past three Fulham defenders and crossed low, Warnock slammed in the unclaimed ball at the far post to rescue Rovers a hard-earned point.