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Chris Smalling’s rise from the Isthmian League to UEFA Europa League and International under-21 football has certainly been a remarkable sequence of events.
The young centre back made his debut at the end of last season in Fulham’s home match against Everton at Craven Cottage, an impressive pre-season campaign followed and when Roy Hodgson called on his services for Fulham’s recent games against Manchester City, CSKA Sofia and FC Basel – Smalling took it all in his stride.
His displays in the Carling Cup and UEFA Europa League showed an impressive level of understanding and composure for such a relatively inexperienced player – and, as he told fulhamfc.com, he is certainly hungry for more First Team action.
“It’s going really well at the minute,” Smalling said. “I got off to a good start during pre-season playing a few games and now that I’ve been involved in Europe and on the bench for Premier League games it’s great.
“Towards the end of last season I was getting on the bench more often and then to finish the season making my debut helped me come back strong in pre-season. I’ve gone from strength to strength since then. The European games have been a real buzz, playing in front of the big crowds in a big competition has been really good.
“It’s a bit different to stepping out for the Reserve Team with just a few hundred in the crowd but playing in front of the big crowds and on TV drives you on. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind but I’m having a good time.
“There are going to be a lot of games between now and Christmas so I hope to get involved a bit more.”
Fulham’s next match sees the Whites take on Hull City at Craven Cottage on Monday evening and, with subsequent games against Roma and Manchester City all taking place the same week, Smalling is hoping for more game time.
“The match against Hull City is a big game, we know that we need to take three points from them,” he said. “It will be a big week next week with three games. Hull is the first one up so we’re all targeting three points. I’m just keeping my head down in training and we’ll see where we go from there but hopefully I’ll get to play.”