Benitez fumes after Brown butt

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A 68th-minute winner from Clint Dempsey put the Cottagers on the brink of Barclays Premiership survival but Brown's first-half attack on Alonso muted the celebrations.

The Spain midfielder required brief treatment after being left with a bloody nose and Benitez was angered by the failure of referee Steve Bennett and his assistant to see the incident. He said: "It was clear and everybody saw it. When the FA view the replay I suppose they'll take action."

Benitez added: "If the officials had seen it then it could have changed the game. Big money has been spent in the electronics system for the four officials yet nobody could see anything.

"We could save the money spent on that and use it for the academy system because it's not working.

"The officials say to me 'Be careful with the line, be careful with the line', but I don't want to break the line (of the technical area), I want to watch the game.

"I had four players injured in this game - Jose Reina (shoulder), Mohamed Sissoko (knee), Alvaro Arbeloa (ankle) and Xabi Alonso (nose). It's unbelievable.

"You can use 20 referees, 2,000 cameras and a lot of electronic systems but if you don't want to see it you won't. Unbelievable."

Benitez risked infuriating Fulham's relegation rivals by naming a weakened team showing nine changes to the side that defeated Chelsea in the Champions League on Tuesday night.

But the Reds would still have been out of sight at half-time had Craig Bellamy and Robbie Fowler brought their shooting boots while Fulham keeper Antti Niemi was in fine form.