Much of the post-match talk following last Saturday’s one-all draw against Portsmouth centred around Antti Niemi’s impressive display in the Fulham goal. The Finnish stopper was on top form as he pulled off a series of spectacular saves to deny the home side.
Niemi’s contribution was invaluable and the result enabled Fulham to retain a top 10 league position. Speaking exclusively to fulhamfc.com on Tuesday, Niemi reflected on a good away point.
Antti, looking back on last Saturday’s match, it must have been good to leave Fratton Park with a point from a very tricky fixture...
We probably would have taken a point before the game. Pompey started the season pretty well and Fratton Park is one of those places where it’s quite difficult to pick up points, so it was a good result.
"...it’s really encouraging that we’ve able to pick up points even though we’ve had a few key players missing." Antti Niemi
It was one of my busier games but to be honest that didn’t surprise me, I’ve seen Pompey play a few times this season and they have always looked like an exciting team with a lot of good players. They probably created one or two chances more than we would have liked and they caused us all sorts of problems at times, but we came away with the point at the end.
You certainly had more than your fair share of work on Saturday, do you like being involved so much?
There are so many different aspects to each game – whether the team wins and you have very little to do, or you get a point having made a lot of saves – as long as we get the points, I don’t care how many saves I have to make.
Portsmouth’s equaliser came about after quite a goalmouth scramble, did you think you were fouled before Andrew Cole scored?
I said after the game that it must have been difficult for the referee to see what was going on because there were so many bodies in there. There was some slightly dangerous play going on, I got a little kick in the head, but I wouldn’t complain too much about it.
I’m not blaming anyone; there was nothing malicious in the challenge. The ball was on the line and everyone was trying to get to it – I can’t really say whether it was a foul or not.
It looks like the side has got into the habit of picking up points even though they haven’t been performing well throughout some games...
There have been quite a few games when we’ve picked up points having only played well for part of the game – quite often in the second half. I think that shows character on our part, to be able to turn a performance around half way through. And it’s really encouraging that we’ve able to pick up points even though we’ve had a few key players missing.
Fulham are now sitting in tenth position, are you feeling the pressure to stay in the Top 10?
There’s always pressure when you play in the Premiership. It’s a really tight league and there are three other teams on 17 points at the moment.
A few weeks ago everyone was saying that Wigan were struggling but now they’ve picked up four consecutive wins.
It just goes to show how quickly things can change, for that reason I don’t really think it’s good for players to concentrate too much on the league table. It’s more important to concentrate on the next game. I’m sure that come April or May we will start to look at the table and see where we could possibly finish. But until then you have to take care of your own performances.
And next up is the trip to the City of Manchester Stadium to face Manchester City. They’ve had something of a mixed start to the season, what are you expecting from the trip to Eastlands?
This season it’s been really difficult to predict what sort of results City are going to get. We all know that they’ve got great players and have a very passionate manager. Obviously they would have like to have done better so far but they are one of those clubs who are going to pick up points at some stage - hopefully it won’t start on Saturday.
There have been a few changes to this season’s preparations ahead of away matches. Do you think that’s made a difference?
Yes, we try to travel to away games on the day of the match. After last season’s results away from home, the management team wanted to change one or two things. It’s been worth the effort and so far it’s been working fine.
Personally, whether I travel on a matchday or before isn’t too important. But at least it gives you another day or so with your family and you can prepare as you would for a home game. I think it’s been a good idea.
