A Strong-Minded Team

Fulham produced a never-say-die attitude at Old Trafford on Saturday afternoon but couldn’t quite find an equaliser after coming back from being 3-1 down at half time.

Martin Jol made just one change from his side that beat Norwich a week ago and Matthew Briggs, who replaced the injured John Arne Riise, admits the Team were devastated to leave Manchester empty handed.

“We’re all gutted to come away with nothing considering the chances we had,” Briggsy told fulhamfc.com after the game. “We conceded some sloppy goals in the first half but I thought we came back well in the second half.

“We’re a strong-minded Team and obviously while we didn’t play too well in the first half, we came out much stronger in the second period.

“We’ve got a lot of quality in our Team and we know we’re capable of scoring goals. Maybe there could have been an improvement in our finishing today but you can’t fault our attitude.”

Matthew played with assurance throughout and the biggest compliment you could pay him was that the lively Antonio Valencia was more subdued than usual.

It was another big test for the England Under-21 left back and Briggsy – who can claim an assist for our second goal – is keen to get as much game time under his belt as possible.

“A couple of days ago John [Arne Riise] took a knock in training so I had a feeling I’d be starting today,” he explained. “I just made sure that I was prepared and ready.

“To play 90 minutes at places like this is great for my development and hopefully I’ll get a few more games in the future.”

The Capital One Cup is next up for the Whites and, though we encounter lower league opposition, Matthew insists we face a tough challenge on Tuesday.

“Obviously we won’t take Sheffield Wednesday for granted,” he said. “They’re a decent side so we’ll keep our heads screwed on as we know we’ll have to play well to beat them.”