Bobby De Cordova-Reid’s fifth-minute opener was added to by Rodrigo Muniz in the first 45, with Cherries briefly threatening a comeback at the start of the second period when Marcos Senesi slammed home to halve Fulham’s lead.

However, moments later the margin was back to two-goals, Muniz grabbing his second of the game.

Asked if his side could take belief from their second-half showing, Iraola told the Daily Echo: “I think we cannot blame a lot of the things we did in the second half.

“I think I’m happy with the second half. We did what we had to do.

“We were on time – probably if we don’t concede the third one, we scored quite early, we could have had our chances.

“Sometimes you are able to get a result, but, we have to look much more, I would say, to what happened at the beginning of the game.”

Iraola then went on to further bemoan Fulham’s third, labelling it a key moment that hurt Cherries.

The Basque boss restated: “Everyone could see it was a key moment because we were we started really well the second half.

“We were putting pressure on them. They were quite low.

“We scored one goal and there are some minutes that you cannot make mistakes because the game is going in your side.

“I think to concede so early and the way we did, it hurt us in that moment.

“We kept pushing, we kept trying. But obviously two goals down is much more difficult.”

Cherries are now without a win in their last five Premier League fixtures, a run stretching back to December.