Fulham manager Martin Jol saluted his side's performance in winning 2-1 at West Brom after New Year's Eve fireworks had disrupted their preparations.
The Cottagers were housed in a hotel in the middle of Birmingham and were kept awake by the celebrations which heralded the start of 2013 but there was nothing sleepy about Fulham's performance as goals from man of the match Dimitar Berbatov and Alexander Kacaniklic ensured a second win in the last 13 games.
"Probably the best fireworks were yesterday at 12 o'clock in front of my hotel!" Jol said. "That was annoying. I said we needed a quiet hotel and it was unbelievable. There were 2,000 people in front of my window!"
He added: "I think it kept the players up too so I was worried. At first I thought it was fans, but it wasn't. To then get a win under our belts the next day, on the first of January, is fantastic."Fulham had taken only eight points from the previous 12 games.
Jol said: "We needed a bit of luck. We did well in the first half and scored a good goal.
"In the second half, they changed their formation a bit, the crowd got behind them and we conceded a soft goal again.
"But we picked things up again, found ourselves in midfield and, over the whole game, I felt the win was deserved."
Albion could only manage a goal from on-loan Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku as they slumped to their third home defeat of the campaign.
Head coach Steve Clarke said: "It was a poor first half from us but a much better second half. On what we produced in the second half, we deserved at least a point out of the game.
"But the first half was really disappointing because we've set really high standards here at the Hawthorns and we didn't reach them in the first half."
Source: PA
