Lampard: Two points dropped

Frank Lampard admitted the 1-1 draw against Fulham at Craven Cottage felt more like a defeat after a late Clint Dempsey equaliser left us with a difficult challenge in our fight to finish in the top-four. Tottenham's defeat at home to Norwich earlier in the day, coupled with Newcastle's win against Bolton, ensured that a victory against our local neighbours would take us level on points with the two teams directly above us, and everything was going according to plan when Lampard gave us the lead from the penalty spot a minute before the break. However, the home side levelled eight minutes from time when the in-form Dempsey headed home, leaving us two points off the pace with only five matches left to play, and Lampard felt we only had ourselves to blame. 'It's a big missed opportunity, having seen the Tottenham result earlier on we knew we could have closed the gap,' he said. 'Fulham's a very tough game, particularly for ourselves with it being a big local derby, they've played well this season, especially of late, it was never going to be a given but we wanted to win it. 'It was hard, it feels like a loss, that's no disrespect to Fulham but we did have a stranglehold on the game and let them back in it, and they put us under pressure towards the end of the game and they probably feel like they deserved their equaliser and that's the disappointing thing.' Lampard's goal ensured he became the first midfielder to reach 150 Premier League goals, a fantastic achievement by anyone's standards, but while he was understandably pleased to reach such a landmark, his delight was tempered slightly by our inability to see the game out. 'I'm very pleased and proud to do it, I don't quite know how I've got there really,' he admitted. 'It's been a long time but I'm proud, it doesn't feel so good today because we lost two points, although I'm proud to be up there among the big players that have made those landmarks.' Our attention now turns away from the league and towards cup glory on two fronts, with a massive FA Cup semi-final against Tottenham on Sunday preceding next week's Champions League semi-final first leg against Barcelona at Stamford Bridge. Lampard, however, is relishing pitting his wits against two top teams as we look to end the season on a high, and believes the impact made by Roberto Di Matteo after the Italian was handed the reins has been a crucial factor in our revival. 'It's very exciting, after the first leg in Napoli we were in a bad way, we could have been going out of the Champions League and who knows in the league and FA Cup,' Lampard argued. 'Suddenly we've turned it around to the extent we're fighting on a few fronts, but it can all change quickly so we need to really focus on every game we've got coming up. We've got big games against big teams coming up and we need to be at our best to do it. 'He [Di Matteo] has been very good with me, I've played more and when you play you're confident and you're able to give something to the team. He's made a big change for everyone, the atmosphere among the squad, but on the pitch the results speak for themselves and Robbie deserves to take a lot of credit for that. It's not easy to be a number two for a while and then take over, he loves this club, he's got it in his heart and that's a great thing to see and everybody's reacted to that.'