Fulham were certainly made to work hard for their away win over Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday at Hillsborough. The Whites took the lead when Andrew Johnson broke the deadlock with a well-taken 12th minute finish but the home side struck back with a spectacular strike from Tommy Spurr.
Johnson completed his brace two minutes from time when he tapped home Erik Nevland’s cross from the right flank. Looking back on the match, Johnson was pleased to have negotiated a potential banana skin.
“It was a tough game,” he told fulhamfc.com. “All credit to Sheffield Wednesday, it was a hard place to go to and they’re a good team – they made it difficult for us. We had to battle and run as much as them but in the end I think our football just shaded it.
“The Gaffer pointed out before the game that on average five or six Premiership teams go out at this early stage so it’s always a potential banana skin for any Premiership team when you play away at a side from a lower division. You’re expected to win the game so there’s no pressure on the opposition – it was all on us to win but credit to the boys, we went up there, did a professional job and got the goals that I think we deserved.
“I was delighted to get both goals because we played Middlesbrough a couple of weeks before and their keeper saved a couple of efforts that were pretty similar to my first one on Saturday. So I was delighted to see that one go in – the second one was a great ball from Erik and all I had to do was tap it in. I was pleased with my goals but the big onus was to get through the round and to get our first away win of the season.”
With the Fourth Round draw handing Fulham a tie against Blue Square Premier side Kettering Town, Johnson was anticipating a difficult tie but was more concerned with the task immediately at hand – namely the match against Blackburn Rovers this Saturday.
Rovers are undefeated in four games following the appointment of Sam Allardyce and with Fulham also looking to protect their unbeaten record, Johnson predicts a tight game.
“I’ve always been a Sam Allardyce fan,” he said. “I think he did a great job at Bolton and I think he’s going to do well for Blackburn. You can see the change in their results, they’ve had a couple of good results so it’s going to be challenging. The players are always looking to impress a new manager but we’re in great form and if we keep working as hard as we have been, we should get a good result.”
Yet with the Whites looking to make it ten Barclays Premier League games unbeaten on Saturday, Johnson reiterated the importance of not getting carried away with the current run of form.
“We’re on a good run at the moment but we can’t go the rest of the season without losing – it could happen at the weekend if we’re not careful,” he said. “So we have to make sure we train right and prepare like we’ve prepared for every single game so far this season. If we work as hard or harder than Blackburn and play the kind of football that we’re capable of playing we should come out with some good points.
“But you can’t get ahead of yourself in this division because you can win two or three on the bounce then you can lose two or three. It’s very tight, everyone is beating everyone. You can’t take the league for granted, all we can do is continue the way we’ve been playing and hopefully our football will be good enough.”
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