Two days before Fulham's must-win game against Birmingham City, striker Erik Nevland was asked where in his career highs a winner at the Cottage would rank. The Norwegian's response was emphatic.
"If scoring against Birmingham gives us a chance of staying up it would probably be the highlight of my career," revealed Nevland. "I didn't come to Fulham to play in the Championship, so if I can contribute to us staying up then it would be brilliant."
Forty eight hours later Nevland was living the dream in front of the Hammersmith End and the striker was clearly delighted to have made such a vital contribution.
“It was a great feeling. We were under a bit of pressure at the time and to go two-nil up we knew that the game was finished. It was an unbelievable atmosphere on Saturday. From the moment we arrived at the stadium you knew how important the game was – the fans were brilliant.
“This is what I came for and I just want to contribute to keeping Fulham up and I’m doing that at the moment. I had a bad period in March when I didn’t do well and that’s frustrating for a player. I just had to keep working hard and I’ve got my rewards."
Fulham have now won three out of their last four Premier League games and Nevland is full of praise for Manager Roy Hodgson who is one game away from completing arguably one of the most remarkable turnarounds in Premier League history.
"If you’d said we would be out of the bottom three before the last game of the season everyone would have taken it a few weeks back. It’s been an amazing turnaround and it just shows you what belief can do."
Nevland clearly believes that Fulham can finish the job at Fratton Park this weekend and secure their Premier League future on the last day of the 2007/08 season.
“It was a surreal feeling after the game because we’d done a great job and put ourselves in a great position but there’s still a lot of work to be done. It’s too early to be celebrating.
“We’ve got to put in the same work on Sunday that we’ve put in the last few games - I think we can beat them and stay in the Premier League.”
