Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer speaks to the press following Saturday's 2-1 victory over Stoke City at Craven Cottage.
First of all, your thoughts on the Team's performance against Stoke?
I thought the performance was pretty good and I think that the possession was pretty much in our favour for most of the game.
If anything, it was disappointing that we gave Stoke an opportunity to get back into the game, because the chances we created, the way we played football, I think we deserved to have the game out of their reach a lot sooner.
That wasn’t to be and you can never knock their determination and their fighting spirit. You know if they get a sniff back in the game like they did, you know you’re going to be up against it and there’s going to be a real fight for getting back in the game and holding on to that lead.
As a fellow goalkeeper, did you feel sorry for Thomas Sorenson?
Of course. You always have sympathy for a goalkeeper when they concede a goal that people would have judged to have been a soft goal.
It was a little bit unlucky for him as well as it did flick under the cross bar and then bounce back and unfortunately came back off him and back in to the goal. It’s never nice.
How are you feeling now, coming back from the injury?
It’s all good, you know I’ve recovered 100% and I feel very very good and my back feels strong. I’ve taken a couple of tumbles in training and thrown myself around and I’ve been training full on for three weeks now and this is my second game. I feel very very good and I’m excited about playing football again.
Were you worried at the time then that it was more serious?
Of course, you always worry whenever you get an injury, in particular when you have an injury that’s related to your back. That’s always a bit hairy at times but when you consult with specialists and get reassurances that with the right sort of treatment and the right rest that things will be fine and for me it’s all been clean sailing.
You must be delighted to have signed a new contract with FFC last month?
It’s great, I’m living the dream, I’m playing football at the highest level and I’m almost 40 years old, there’s not too many of us that can say that, so I’m still playing because I love playing and as long as you love playing and you’re still good enough to be play at this level then I want to continue to play.
I’ve still got ambition to go on and represent Australia at another World Cup in 2014 and that’s my ultimate goal and I’m working towards it.
Has the new striker [Pavel Pogrebnyak] been banging them past you in training?
Fortunately not yet no, I didn’t train with them on Thursday, I trained outside, but I didn’t actually train with the team when they played games. On Friday, I was lucky enough to be on the same team as him. He looks very very good. He’s fitted in very very easily and his work rate is excellent. His finish was top class and I think he’s going to get better and better.
How is Pogrebnyak’s English?
Not bad so far, there’s a lot of nodding at the moment but no, so far he seems like his English is pretty good. I mean he speaks German as well, so there’s a few of us that speak German as well, so the communication is not going to be an issue at all.
Fulham are doing well again in the Fair Play league again – would that be a nightmare to start in June again?
At the end of the day, playing in Europe is fantastic and I’m bitterly disappointed that we got knocked out in the last group game.
For me it was a big big disappointment that I couldn’t take part in it and also for my team-mates because you don’t come back so early and just come for a jolly up, you know once you are back you are 100% focused and you want to go far in the tournament.
We had tremendous success in 2009 and we wanted to go on and try and get somewhere near that and to be knocked out in the group stages is bitterly disappointing.