Clint Dempsey took his goal tally to nine for the 2010/11 campaign with a brace last weekend against Stoke City at the Cottage. The American international gave Fulham the lead in the first-half when he converted Andrew Johnson’s centre from close range before netting his second of the game from the spot, having won the penalty himself.
Fulham’s usual penalty taker, Captain Danny Murphy, stepped aside allowing Dempsey to complete his brace.
“He’s just playing with confidence at the moment,” said Manager Mark Hughes as he reflected on Dempsey’s performance. “He loves scoring goals and said that he was going to take it [the penalty]. We’re delighted that it went in, it enabled us to see the game off very comfortably.
“He’s been great for me since I’ve come here. He’s always had an impact in almost every game he’s been involved in. It’s been a little bit hard on Zoltan Gera in fairness; it’s probably affected him because I’ve chosen Clint before him on occasions. But because Clint’s done so well for me, that happens.”
The win against Stoke continues Fulham’s fine run of form, with the Whites having won four of their last six games in all competitions.
“We’re delighted with the way we’re playing and the results we’re getting," said Hughes. "We're more confident leading into games rather than having a bit of apprehension, because we weren’t getting the results our performances deserved.
“We needed to get key personnel back and we needed to get points on the board. We were playing reasonably well, we all felt that but we weren’t getting any results. We’re always judged by results and obviously that wasn’t good enough. We just needed a cutting edge and in recent games we’ve added that to our good play.”
The Whites are next in action on Wednesday evening when they make the trip up to Anfield to face Liverpool. The Reds secured their first win under new boss Kenny Dalglish last weekend, courtesy of a 3-0 victory over Wolves at Molineux, and Hughes is anticipating a challenging encounter.
“They’ve had a change, Kenny Dalglish has gone in and he’s a huge figure there,” said the Fulham Manager. “Everybody seems to be back on board. Maybe it’s not the easiest time to go there because everyone’s on a high, but so are we and we’re playing well away from home. We’re picking up points and we don’t concede many goals, so we can go there and play well because we know that we’ve got the ability to cause them problems.”