Belief and Confidence

Diomansy Kamara earned a recall to Fulham’s starting line-up on Saturday following an impressive performance in the Reserves’ midweek victory over Reading. And the Senegalese international wasted little time in getting on the score sheet, heading home Simon Davies’ cross on 23 minutes.

“It’s nice to score but it’s no good when you score and the team doesn’t win,” Kamara told fulhamfc.com. “But I hope to score more in the last six games. The manager is happy, I’m fit and he said that it was a good performance from me which I’m very happy about.

“Of course the result was very disappointing; we needed to win this game. You go 2-1 up and a minute later they score and you draw.

“I’m disappointed for the supporters because a lot of people came to Derby but I hope the team plays well this Saturday, like we did against Everton and Aston Villa. I also hope we get the same level of support from the fans.”

Sunderland are next up at the Cottage and put quite simply, it is a game that Fulham must win in order to remain in touch with Premiership safety.

“They are a very good team,” said Kamara as he looked ahead to Saturday’s opponents. “I played against them last season when I played for West Brom. They are very strong, I watched them win their last game against West Ham and they’re a very good side. But with six games left we need to win at home and then beat Reading – but first of all we need to beat Sunderland.

“I remember the 1-1 draw earlier in the season. We played better than them but they scored in the last few minutes. We need to be strong, I remember last year West Ham and two years ago West Brom stayed up, we need to believe in ourselves.”

With Fulham six points away from Birmingham, Kamara stressed the importance of the next two fixtures.

“Six points might look like a lot but if we win and Birmingham lose, it goes down to just three points,” he said. “We need belief and confidence. We need to win on Saturday, and then we can look at Birmingham’s result.

“When our games are over I’m always looking for the other results; Birmingham, Wigan or Bolton. We need to get three points behind Birmingham. Their next game against Wigan won’t be easy and then they have Everton so we need to believe in ourselves.”