Stephen Kelly is hoping for another chance to impress in the Ukraine on Thursday night following his strong performance at right back against FC Dnipro last week.
The Republic of Ireland international defender believes the second leg of Fulham's UEFA Europa League Play-Off will be a very different proposition from last week's match at the Cottage where Fulham gained a three-nil aggregate lead.
“It was a very solid performance last week and it was nice to get three goals as well," Kelly told fulhamfc.com. "We wanted to do that and it was a positive start to the Play-Off.
“We’re in great stead for Thursday’s game. They’re hands down the best side we’ve faced so far and we knew it was going to be a tricky tie last week.
“We were told it wouldn’t be too dissimilar to Shakhtar Donetsk. They weren’t as good as Shakhtar but I think we nullified them quite early on last week and we imposed our own game on them.
“We caught them on the break a couple of times and I thought we could have added to our tally with the opportunities that came our way. We were able to get the ball down, play our game and overall it was a really positive performance.
“They’ve [Dnipro] got it all to do in the second leg so I imagine they will just go for it. I can’t imagine they’ll have a player sitting in front of the back four like they did last week at the Cottage.
“It will be a totally different game because they will come out from the start but they’ll be wary of us on the counter attack. If we can get an away goal it will effectively mean the tie will be over.
“It’s going to be difficult because they’re a good side but I thought we dominated them last week and we’ll be looking to deliver the same professional performance on Thursday.”
Kelly is hoping for further game time in the Ukraine to impress manager Martin Jol as he looks to build on his first two seasons at the Club by making the right back position his own.
“The Manager has given everyone a chance and hopefully after my performance last week I've given him a selection headache," said Kelly.
“I’m an out-an-out right back and I play there for my country a lot. I’ve captained my country from there and that’s where I’ve played most of my football. Hopefully I can continue on and grow in confidence and stake a claim for the position at Fulham.
“I’ve played left back and centre back but right back is my position. Last season started off great. I played the first 11 or 12 games before I got injured and then I found myself on the bench every week which is frustrating, but that’s football.
“Sometimes you get knocks at the wrong time and I got injured against Tottenham and then Chris [Baird] came in and did well and stayed there for the rest of the season.
“That can happen in football. The season before I was mainly involved in Europe and I got to play in some fantastic games, like the match against Juventus and Shakhtar Donetsk. I played in every game up until the Final which was great for me.
“It was frustrating for me last season but it’s a new campaign and we have a new manager and everybody is out to show what they can do. I think I proved that I can do well against a very good side last week.”
