Keller's Confidence

Lawrie Sanchez' Fulham side face Manchester City| on Saturday and whilst the Whites opponents may be flying high in second place, Kasey Keller believes his side are close to earning the points that their recent performances have deserved.

“It looks like the team is close to putting a good run together, obviously a couple of results before I got here, the game I played in and even the games over the last few weekends where we got into good positions but didn’t finish teams off.

“Last minute goals have cost us dearly. We need to see games out and make sure it’s a win, not a draw or a loss. Having said that in the Spurs game the guys showed a great fighting spirit to come back how they did."

One player who has impressed over recent weeks is Keller's compatriot, Clint Dempsey, and the keeper expressed his delight for the attacking midfielder after his recent goal haul.

“Clint has been pushed into a forward position and he has scored the goals which is great as it would be for any of my team-mates, but as he is a friend as well and national team colleague it always mean some more.

"We have players in this side who can get goals and I think it is important to spread the responsibility of getting goals throughout the team and not just depend upon one person.”

Manchester City's early season form has been impressive, with wins over West Ham, Derby, Manchester United and Aston Villa, but Keller was in confident mood when it came to discussing Saturday's game at the Cottage.

“Manchester City are winning games at the moment by one goal to nil - they’re obviously pretty solid at the back and they’re getting that important odd goal here and there to get the important points.

“Teams win championships with 1-0 scorelines. Although I don’t think City will be challenging for the title, after last season when they were battling against relegation at one point, its been a strong start which their fans will be pleased about and will breed confidence in their players.

“You have to respect the start they have had but you wonder if we could have avoided some mistakes and had a bit more luck we could have found ourselves in a similar position to them. But I think we should be a team with confidence as well after we came back against Spurs in the manner we did and then our performance away to Wigan in which we showed we can do it away from home as well.”