Fulham boss Roy Hodgson refused to get down over their defeat to Birmingham City.

The Cottagers were undone by a superb winner from Lee Bowyer.

But Hodgson says: "It was a very good performance from the team but a bad result. We had a few players missing but the players who came in did really well.

"We lost Erik Nevland through illness so Clint Dempsey had to go up front. I don't think anything would have made much difference today because we dominated but the goal eluded us.

We did our very best to score a goal but when we did get an opportunity the goalkeeper was in fine form or someone got in a good block.

"I don't think we could have had more possession, more crosses or corners, it was just a question of the ball not falling kindly enough.

"I can't be too disappointed because we played very well. I don't think we had any glaring misses but most of it was us creating dangerous situations in the box and Birmingham being able to deal with it."