Fulham boss Roy Hodgson believes Sam Allardyce will still be pleased with his Blackburn team when he returns from heart surgery despite getting beaten 3-0 at Craven Cottage.

Allardyce is scheduled for an operation on a coronary artery and missed the Barclays Premier League win over Bolton at the weekend, with his team also looking in the mood for victory against Hodgson's men.

Erik Nevland opened the scoring two minutes from half-time with the first Fulham shot of the match, with Blackburn keeping the hosts at bay until that point.

Hodgson said: "His team didn't do my blood pressure any favours. I wish him well and he must be proud how is team is playing.

"Apparently red wine is good for the heart and I look forward to having a glass with him up at Blackburn later in the season."

Clint Dempsey struck twice in the second half to wrap up the points and send Fulham into the top half of the table.

"The first 40 minutes was not the sort of game you like to watch because the ball was all up in the air," Hodgson added.

"We hoped to get the ball down but credit to Blackburn because they kept us pinned down and stopped us doing what we wanted to do.

"Fortunately, we had the fight and character to stay in the game and then we had one moment in the first half where we scored a good goal."

Neil McDonald, standing in for Allardyce, felt it was a missed opportunity.

"I thought the first half was played some really good stuff," he said.

"We should have scored in the first minute but we didn't take that chance. Then there was some poor defending for the three goals all in all.

"The only chance they had in the first half they stuck into the back of the net. They were a bit more clinical than we were and that's why they went in front at half-time.

"Second half from our point of view we huffed and puffed a bit, but there was no real end product and we are all disappointed with the way that they scored the other couple of goals."

He added: "Sam will be bitterly disappointed because we have lost the game."

Hodgson was not satisfied entirely with the performance and felt his side were jaded.

"We are tired, there is an element of that but having said that we are all playing three matches," he said.

"We have to make sure we can deal with that problem and get ourselves back to our energetic selves."