Fikayo Tomori says Chelsea players realised at the break they had to be ‘solid at the back’ after a number of chances went begging in the first half of their 2-1 win over Hull City.
The Blues appeared on course for a comfortable victory as Tomori added to Michy Batshuayi’s early strike with a close-range header in the 64th minute at the KCOM Stadium.
Kamil Grosicki’s free-kick deflected in off Mateo Kovacic to set up a tense finish on Saturday afternoon but the visitors held onto their one-goal advantage to book their place in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
Frank Lampard bemoaned Chelsea’s wastefulness in the final third after his side converted just two of their 16 attempts at goal across the fourth-round tie.
And, speaking after the clash, Tomori agreed with his manager that Chelsea must start taking their chances to kill off opposition teams.
‘We probably could have killed the game in the first half but we didn’t take our chances,’ the defender told BT Sport.
‘We said at half-time that because we hadn’t taken our chances we have to make sure we’re solid at the back and try and score another.
‘But we need to be more clinical and I think my goal came at a good time.
‘It got a bit difficult towards the end when they scored the free-kick.’
Tomori added: ‘It’s the FA Cup, it’s a one-off game and teams want to go for it so I think that they were never going to stop and we knew that.
‘I think if we had scored a third goal then it would have been a lot easier for us.
‘But we didn’t manage to get that and had to ride it out.’
Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta admitted the side ‘have to do better’ after their nervy victory over Hull.
The Spaniard said: ‘With the chances we’ve had, we cannot concede in these circumstances and we have to control better.
‘We want to go far but we could have handled better – it’s not the first time we’ve not managed the game well.
‘We had clear chances to score more and then we stopped playing our game and we got punished.
‘If we want to fight for trophies we have to do better.’
MORE: Joe Cole and Glenn Hoddle speak out on Mateo Kovacic’s ‘massive mistake’ against Hull City
