Under-fire Jol calls for calm after latest defeat
Under-fire Fulham boss Martin Jol has called for calm after seeing his side suffer a fifth successive Premier League defeat at West Ham.
The Dutchman admitted in the build-up to the match on Saturday that his job could be on the line if Fulham failed to beat Sam Allardyce's side at Upton Park, and they slumped to a 3-0 defeat.
Mohamed Diame's deflected effort put the hosts ahead, before substitutes Carlton Cole and Joe Cole wrapped up the win in the final 10 minutes.
But afterwards, Jol insisted that he would keep a cool head, although he did acknowledge that the timing of West Ham's opener was crucial.
"It is part of my job to deal with pressure," he said. "It is not that I am not used to it, but you have to keep your head cool, that is for certain.
"We needed a result in the situation we were in and the same applied for West Ham.
"They tried to put pressure on us in the first half with the long ball and we coped with that.
"We had a strategy for Adel Taarabt to exploit the space behind their midfield and he did well. But to come out and concede a goal at the start of the second half really killed us."
Captain Scott Parker sympathised with Jol as the pressure continues to mount on the 57-year-old, insisting that it is the players who should be blamed for recent poor performances.
"The manager takes all the flak really but, ultimately, the players need to take massive responsibility," said the former West Ham midfielder. "He is the one that picks us and we are the ones who go out there.
"It is not nice being down at the bottom of the table and obviously confidence is low but I don't think it is a fact that the players are not willing to put in the hard work, because we are.
"We are trying everything we possibly can to turn the corner and hopefully we can do that."
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