Football story by Brian Watters, Mon, 20 Mar 2006 18:40:00 GMT


Chelsea's New Year woes continued unabated as they tumbled to a 1-0 defeat at Craven Cottage to Fulham who silenced their relegation worries with this win. The match was not without drama though, with Chelsea being denied a goal and Jose Mourinho charging that the referee was influenced by Fulham players.

Paulo Ferreira's clearance of a Steed Malbranque pass that has ricocheted off Frank Lampard found Luis Boa Morte, who calmly netted the ball past Petr Cech in the 17th minute. Chelsea looked off colour as they were subjected to relentless attacks by the Fulham forwards.

In fact, the home side could have had a penalty when John Terry brought down Moritz Volz, but the referee felt otherwise. Didier Drogba was denied a goal on grounds that it was a handball. After this Chelsea never seemed to recover and were handed out four yellow cards.

Mourinho rang up changes by bringing on Duff and Drogba initially and then Ricardo Carvalho, but the defending champions did not find the net. Chelsea's day became worse when William Gallas was sent off in the closing stages for bringing down Heidar Helguson.

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho said the referee was influenced by Fulham players, "It's a handball so it's not a goal and the decision is correct," he said. "What is not correct is the referee didn't see and allows the goal, the linesman didn't see but after pressure by Fulham they changed their decision."

Fulham manager Chris Coleman was happy with the referee for making the right decision, "I thought it was handball but I didn't think the linesman would be able to see it from the position he was in. I can understand their frustrations though, having had a goal given and then taken away," he said. "I thought we deserved the three points and it's going to give us a big boost."

Match Details
Referee: M Dean (Wirral).

Fulham: Crossley, Volz, Pearce, Knight, Rosenior, Malbranque (Christanval 89), Pembridge, Brown, Boa Morte, McBride, John (Helguson 71).
Goals: Boa Morte 17.

Chelsea: Cech, Paulo Ferreira, Terry, Huth (Ricardo Carvalho 45), Gallas, Wright-Phillips (Duff 26), Lampard, Makelele, Essien, Joe Cole (Drogba 26), Crespo.

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