NEIL McDonald was left bemoaning his Blackburn Rovers side’s lack of killer instinct last night after admitting the 3-0 defeat at Fulham was a missed ‘opportunity’.

Rovers’ assistant boss, deputising for Sam Allardyce ahead of tomorrow’s heart op, admitted Erik Nevland’s 43rd minute opener knocked the stuffing out of his side – but believes the visitors should already have held the upper hand.

Franco Di Santo missed a golden opportunity to give the visitors an early lead in a dominant Rovers’ first half and, after several other squandered chances, Nevland changed the entire mood of the game.

It was a different story after the break, as Clint Dempsey scored twice to give Fulham an eventually comfortable 3-0 win, but McDonald was left reflecting on what might have been.

McDonald said: “A lost chance because of the goals we have conceded. It was a lack of killer instinct and it is like a knife through your back when they score when they do.

“They only had one chance in the first half. They are the home team and are good at home. Second half we are chasing the game and they play a little bit of football and they have taken the goals at the right time to kill the game off.

“We had our chances but we didn’t show that killer instinct. It changes the mood.”

Allardyce’s assistant refused to blame his boss’ absence on the defeat, insisting the squad have reacted well to being without him this week.

He offered no excuses for some shoddy second half defending, as former Rovers Damien Duff exploited too much space to set up both of Dempsey’s second half strikes.

“I was pleased with the way the players are applying themselves even though the manager wasn’t here,” said McDonald.

“They are very comfortable on the ball, which is really good, but if you don’t have that killer instinct you are struggling.

“If we had gone 1-0 in front, after the last couple of good performances, things might have been different., Their goal was a little bit of a drainer as we conceded on half time and that knocks the stuffing out of you.

“Then we are trying to get back in the game but the other two we have conceded are poor defensively and we are very disappointed.”