After ending his 13 year wait for an international goal in mid-August, Northern Ireland captain Aaron Hughes scored another vital goal for Fulham on Thursday evening, breaking the deadlock against FC Dnipro in the UEFA Europa League Play-Off (first leg).
Hughes was typically modest when it came to his recent goalscoring exploits, but the defender was evidently pleased to have helped earn Fulham a healthy lead over FC Dnipro ahead of next Thursday’s return leg in the Ukraine.
“It’s funny how it [scoring] happens! It was nice to score for Northern Ireland the other week and it was nice to score again on Thursday night,” said Hughes.
“That could have been a very difficult game for us on Thursday night but I thought we played well. We got a couple of goals before half-time which put us in good shape and Clint’s goal in the second half killed the game off.
“We just needed to make sure we didn’t concede and we did that so we’ve got a healthy lead. If a team scores away from home it can make the tie very difficult.
“We were happy with the result and reasonably happy with the performance. Now we’ve got to make sure we finish the job in the Ukraine next week.
We’re taking it one game at a time and we’ll try and enjoy it like last time. We’ll prepare properly, work hard and try and go as far as we can in the competition this year.”
The strength and depth of Fulham’s squad will tested to the limit again this season if Martin Jol’s team can secure their place in the Group stages of the UEFA Europa League next week, but Hughes for one will not be complaining about a congested fixture list this season.
“We’ve never used that [playing more games] as an excuse,” said Hughes. “When you’re playing Thursday and Sunday, or whatever it may be, the training is not as intensive. You’re spending most of the days during the week recovering and going through shape and tactics.
“The Medical team at Fulham do a great job of keeping us fit and staying on top of little niggles and making sure we’re right for the games. They make sure we don’t do too much or too little.
“They’re spot on in what they do so that helps us an awful lot. We’ve got prior experience of European football so we’re used to it. I’m sure we’ll have no problems again this year.”
Before Fulham fly out to the Ukraine next week Hughes and company have some domestic business to take care of this afternoon, with a tough Barclays Premier League encounter away to Wolves.
“They’re [Wolves] always a difficult team to play against and they can always cause you problems,” said Hughes. “We’ve never had an easy game against Wolves and I’m sure it will be more of the same on Sunday.”
