Fans vent anger at Scolari

Last updated : 07 February 2009 By Paul Lagan

Chelsea's assistant manager Ray Wilkins won't be telling his boss Luiz Felipe Scolari of the dissatisfaction heaped upon him by the Chelsea supporters following the 0-0 against Hull City at Stamford Bridge.

The substitution of new boy Ricardo Quaresma for Didier Drogba on 63 minutes was greeted with derision by sections of the 41,802 crowd.

They shouted to Scolari: "You don't know what you're doing."

Wilkins countered: " It was not pleasant to hear as clearly Scolari does know what he's doing, he has won loads of trophies.

"The substitution was to try and improve things. Quaresma was waning after the hour.

"But managers from foreign countries will not understand it and I won't be telling him about it. There was a minority of the crowd who started it and the rest just took it up. But they pay their money and are entitled to say what they like.

"They could have scored as we went forward in search of goals.

"There is always pressure to bring home trophies as do they guys at the bottom of the league experience. We will work hard to bring those trophies home."

Wilkins preferred to focus on the future: "Every game is vital now. Our next three games are Watford in the FA Cup and their pitch will prove a test for our players, then it's Aston Villa who are flying followed by the great Juventus. But we have not given up on the title. It will be tough but we will give it a damn good go.

"You will find second, third and fourth place teams changing places . Manchester United will be tough to catch. But second place is not good enough for Chelsea, we strive to be number one. We won't give up until it's mathematically impossible for us to win it

Of the game itself, Wilkins admitted: "Naturally we are disappointed. - we huffed and puffed but could not score. We gave the same endeavour as we did against Stoke City [where Chelsea turned the match around to win with two goals in the dying seconds].

"There is anxiety around the team and had John Terry scored in the second minute we would have got more," he concluded.

Hull City boss Phil Brown was delighted with the point and rueing the chance of snatching all three, and felt the booing of Scolari was down to them.

"It was part of our game plan designed on hard work," he enthused.

"The fans play their part in the game and we wanted to keep them quiet. Scolari is in tough job with all the expectancy of winning titles. I am not under that kind of pressure. We just need to get enough points to stay in the Premiership.

"Chelsea have dropped 14 points at home and if at the end of the season, that's the reason they haven't won the title, then the fans are going to have their say. I'm happy with a point I would have being grinning like a Cheshire cat had we got all three. Had we conceded in the first minute and the whole things changes.

"I had a problem when I was at Derby County, but Scolari is still a top manager."

He added: We could have nicked it. The game plan went well, and slowly and surly, in the second half we turned the tide.

We hit the bar [with Kevin Kilbane's header] but I'm ecstatic we got a point.

"The work rate was phenomenal, quite outstanding. We did not come here to park the bus, we came here to take them on.

"Geovanni was my last selection headache because he has not reached the heights of the early part of the season. I was after hard work from him, not brilliant skill, that will come. But at times he was so difficult to play against and he did a good job holding off Mikel.

"Our centre halves might get the headlines but they needed to be on form to deal with Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka. But is was our great work ethic and team shape that I'm most pleased about.

"We could have won it, we had the best clear cut chances. Craig Fagan had a great chance to lob the goalkeeper. On a good day he could have had a hat trick.

"A lot has being made about our six straight defeats, but I witnessed great signs last week against WBA and I asked the players to rekindle the same kind of confidence and that came back against WBA. We got a point and could have got all three too.

"When I saw Didier Drogba come on I told him to take it and I'll buy him a drink," he laughed.