The Tanner Report: Fulham 0 Tottenham 1

Points not praise are the keywords. Once again Fulham produced a performance to admire but not 3 crucial points. We started well, lost our grip of the game and, despite a second half in which we took the game to Spurs, ended up the losers and still in the relegation zone.

Some fans will be aggrieved that Josh Maya’s equaliser was chalked off as Lemina handled  the ball just before he shot home.

Yet the rules – absurd as they are – are that any hand ball immediately before a goal should be penalised.

It matters not that Lemina could not get his hand away and there was no intent.

Nor does it ultimately matter that VAR might have noticed that Harry Kane was in an an offside position for the Dell Alli goal, nor that Anguissa had his shirt pulled in the box.

We have a situation now that the referee on the pitch is secondary to the referee in Stockley Park. The system is going to be reviewed but by referees.

It’s high time that other stakeholders – the fans, the players, managers,  a soccer statesman, a senior football reporter – are all canvassed for their views.

As it stands no one seems to understand the rules.

Fulham’s midfield of Harrison Reed, Lemina, Anguissa and Ruben Loftus-Cheek have only contributed one goal.

I don’t know the exact figure but, in the promotion season of 2017-18, Tom Cairney and Ryan Sessegmon must have scored 20-plus goals.

That absence of midfield goals together with our awful start – and not VAR – is more responsible for our present relegation position.