Ashley Cole admits Chelsea's fans were right to boo the team after they could only draw with Rosenborg in their Champions League group match at Stamford Bridge last night.

Only 24,973 supporters turned up to watch the match against the Norwegians and they made their feelings known at the final whistle by giving Jose Mourinho and his team a chorus of dissent.

Rosenborg, expected to be Group B's whipping boys, stunned Chelsea by taking a 24th-minute lead though Miika Koppinen. Andriy Shevchenko equalised for Chelsea in the 53rd minute, but despite peppering the Rosenborg goal with more than 25 shots and hitting the woodwork on two occasions, Chelsea failed to find a winner.

"I have some sympathy with the fans," Cole, the Chelsea left back, said. "We have to be beating teams at home, whoever it is. You understand their frustration.

"We have only scored first in the Premier League against Portsmouth this season and we are disappointed at how that is going. We are conceding silly goals from free-kicks a lot which, for a team like us with the players we have got, we shouldn't be doing.

"Jose Mourinho did not say anything to us as the end of the game but we all know that he was got to be disappointed."

Chelsea are suffering from the absence of both Frank Lampard, the England midfielder, and striker Didier Drogba. They contributed more than 50 goals between them last season but both are missing through injury and are not expected to be back for the vital Premier League match with Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Drogba is still struggling with a knee injury while Lampard's recovery from a thigh strain is taking much longer to heal than anticipated.

However, Cole insists Chelsea have the necessary quality within the squad to compensate for their loss and maintains Sunday's match would be the perfect time to kick-start their miserable season. "It is a huge game and maybe the Rosenborg result could help us - you have to be 100 per cent going there.

"It is not just the points but pride and the fight for the championship is on as well. We are fifth and that is not where we want to be.

"We have the potential to get results without Frank and Didier. It is not going too well but we are going to have to start winning games without them."

Meanwhile, Petr Cech is adamant that despite a poor start to the season the Chelsea players are sticking close together. "The spirit is still there, though now is the time for it to come through. It is easy to play when you win every game each week and score five goals.

"It is easy to be part of the team when that is happening. But it is more difficult when things are going against you and you don't have great results.

"That's what is happening now. It is up to us to pick ourselves up. But we still have a belief, a confidence. In our last two games, we were superior to our opponents and created a lot of chances."