After Fulham hit Queens Park Rangers for six on Sunday afternoon, defender Brede Hangeland spoke of his satisfaction at having secured Fulham’s first Barclays Premier League win of the 2011/12 campaign after a frustrating start to the season.
"There’s always a bit of frustration when you play well but don’t get the results you deserve,” Hangeland explained. “There has been some frustration in us not getting the results we wanted but against QPR everything clicked.
“It was a great win on Sunday after a few disappointments and quite a slow start to the season. It’s nice to go into the international break knowing we got a great win and it takes a bit of pressure off.
“You could see what a good team we are and everyone should take a lot of confidence from the performance and the result. We can now start concentrating on preparing for our next game against Stoke City.”
Hangeland stressed the importance of striking first in the Barclays Premier League and praised the performance of Andrew Johnson, who bagged a hat-trick on Sunday to take his tally for the season to nine goals in all competitions.
“He’s [Johnson] impressed me a lot,” said Hangeland. “He scored two goals last Thursday and then scored a hat-trick on Sunday – that says it all really. He’s a player I very much like having on my team and I wouldn’t like to play against him.
“The big thing for me is to score first in the Premier League and we did that on Sunday. You can then relax a bit and the other team is forced to chase the game so you can sit back and counter attack, especially at home.”
Hangeland’s prior experience of such an emphatic score-line was during his time in Denmark with FC Copenhagen FC and whilst the Norwegian international expected a tighter contest on Sunday, he was evidently most pleased with putting three points on the board.
“I’ve certainly not been involved in a result like that in England before,” said Hangeland. “I must have been when I was playing in Denmark but I was playing for the best team and we won all our matches.
“We were anticipating a very close game on Sunday because it was a local derby but these things happen in football every now and then. It was a very good result for us.
“I believe that equals the record of goals scored for Fulham in the Premier League but I was happy just to win. Whether it’s one-nil or six-nil, what we needed on Sunday was a win and obviously we’re delighted to have done it in such good fashion."