Despite being disappointed at conceding a late equaliser at Pride Park, Roy Hodgson was pleased with the point his side gained from Saturday’s clash with Derby.
“We’re still in with a chance of staying up”, explained Hodgson. “It would have been nice to win it and of course we’re all disappointed at having scored what could have easily been a winner then to let Derby straight back into the game. That was a major disappointment.
"I thought it was a very competitive game with chances for both teams. I thought we worked very hard for the result we got, which under normal circumstances, when people aren’t saying we must win every week - people might even be congratulating us on a good away performance.
“It is something we as coaches preach about and warn players about but it’s an emotional game and sometimes people forget the lessons they’ve learned. It’s not that they don’t know, they forget in the euphoria of seeing a potential victory late in the game, they switch off for a few seconds and suddenly it’s back to parity. Even after that I thought that we did our very best to get a winning goal."
Hodgson was pleased with Fulham’s attacking play and felt his side threatened far more on Saturday than in previous fixtures.
“I thought we started the game extremely brightly and we had spells where we had the game. There are six matches left to play and we’ve got to make sure we take every opportunity from every one of those matches. I thought today we looked like we were going to score goals a little bit more so than in previous matches.
“I thought we stretched the Derby defence to the limit. I thought Kamara did a good job for us and he was a constant threat. I had the feeling that when we attacked today we had goals in us and that’s a good sign and we need to keep that up and make sure we defend even better than we did today, because if we’re going to concede two goals every week it’s not going to be easy winning matches."
Over 2,000 Fulham fans made the trip to Pride Park on Saturday and Hodgson was delighted with the support his team received and called for the same backing at Craven Cottage next weekend.
“I thought our supporters were fantastic. They’ve come all the way up to Derby and sang throughout the game. I hope they’ll be there in force next weekend to try and cheer us on to a much needed victory.”
