Parker : This defeat was deserved, but Fulham still have a 'massive chance' of staying up

Scott Parker conceded Fulham deserved nothing after getting drawn into Leeds United's helter-skelter football as they missed another chance to escape the relegation zone.

Although they quickly cancelled out a Patrick Bamford goal through Joachim Andersen in Friday night's encounter at the Cottage, they struggled to subdue the lively visitors and fell to second-half strike from Raphinha.

"There have not been two many times this season that I've stood here after a defeat or a draw and didn't feel we deserved more from a game, but definitely we need to improve from where we were tonight. We didn't deserve anything," said the Fulham boss.

"I'm disappointed, but I thought the better team won.

"The one thing you don't want against Leeds' intensity is for the game to become a bit of a basketball match and I thought at times we struggled.

"Leeds probably are the best in the league at making the game very erratic, making the game very quick, fast and end-to-end and they suck you in to playing very similar to them. We wanted to get some control of the ball but never really got a foothold in the game."

Parker continued: "The pressure they put you under, you need to make good decisions and we struggled a little bit in those moments.

"In saying that, we get ourselves back in the game at half-time it's 1-1 and we looked a threat on set plays, but goals change games and we missed a massive chance to put ourselves in front at 2-1 and then within 30 seconds we were picking the ball out of our net."

The loss was Fulham's 10th at home this season in the league and there are only eight games left for them to overhaul Newcastle or Brighton to beat the drop.

But Parker believes that his players will keep the faith and that they still have it in their power to complete the rescue mission when the season enters its final stages following the international break.

"I've had to draw on my experience the whole year and understand, and try to get that message across to the players, that we've given ourselves a real good chance and we still have a massive chance," he said.

"I always say, never get too high when you're winning games and vice versa.

"It's eight games left now. Eight massive games. And we need to learn from tonight, definitely. We need to be very honest with ourselves and understand where we've fallen short in certain areas and come back stronger."