Jol attempts to defend Stockdale

Martin Jol refused to "blame" David Stockdale for Fulham's 2-1 defeat to Swansea but insisted his goalkeeper's blunders were the only reason his side were sucked ever closer to the Barclays Premier League drop zone.

Jol compared Stockdale's errors to a "Christmas gift" as he handed the Swans a 2-0 lead from which the Cottagers never recovered.

Stockdale was making his first Premier League start for almost 11 months following an injury to Mark Schwarzer and manager Jol said: "I can't blame 90 per cent of my players. They gave everything, they did everything. The only one who didn't have the best Christmas Day was my goalkeeper and he's a very good goalkeeper. I won't blame him but you can see that we gave them the two goals - simple."

He added: "I feel that the first goal we presented to them and the second goal was almost a Christmas gift.

"I don't think if you play in the way we played today that you will have these sorts of disappointing results, because will pick up points. We made it difficult for them, tactically it was probably our best game over the last couple of months. I really enjoyed watching us."

Source : http://www.football.co.uk/fulham/jol_attempts_to_defend_stockdale_rss3647391.shtml