Hodgson not getting carried away

26 April 2009 09:30
Roy Hodgson would be honoured if Fulham could secure a place in Europe next season but is refusing to get excited about the prospect just yet.The Cottagers moved into seventh place in the top flight thanks to a 29th minute goal from substitute Erik Nevland in a 1-0 win against Stoke.It pushed Fulham ahead of West Ham in the race to qualify for a place in next season's Europa League."It would be a great honour and a tribute to the work the players have put in this year if they could sneak this seventh place," said Hodgson."But the competition for that place is still very strong. We can't rule out Manchester City, Tottenham, Wigan and West Ham."Any one of those four, plus ourselves, can take that seventh place and it will all depend on who can keep their season going to the death and get the right results."There is no guarantee we will be in top seven in four games time. A lot can happen in that time. We have got a tough programme with Everton and Aston Villa and Chelsea and Newcastle away."So I think today's victory was important for us to bring us up to 47 points because it distances us from some of the teams around the middle of the table."Fulham lost strikers Bobby Zamora and Andrew Johnson through injury in the opening half-hour but Hodgson was pleased with the performances of their replacements - matchwinner Nevland and Diomansy Kamara."I was really delighted that we won it after losing our two front players as early as we did," added Hodgson."Bobby was fine yesterday but apparently damaged his back this morning doing something quite menial."I don't know exactly what it was. When he came to the game, he was complaining his back was in a bit of a spasm and causing him problems. We were hoping that, as he warmed-up, the pain would go and he would recover his mobility."But he didn't so we had to take him off very early and shortly after that Andrew got the knock on his medial ligament and had to come off as well."So we ended-up after 30 minutes with both our other two forwards on the pitch. It was great they got the chance to play and even better for Erik that he got a chance to make the goal chance and take it as well."For two-thirds of the game we really played well but lost our way in the last third of the game."This was our 14th clean sheet so that is quite a good achievement. We have got a good goalkeeper but also a great credit to the work that has gone on in front of him."Stoke boss Tony Pulis admits it was not a game full of chances but he remains desperate for the side to reach 40 points and ensure their top flight survival."It was a very tight game," said Pulis. "I don't think both teams created a lot of chances."We certainly didn't. We had about four chances with Ryan Shawcross and Ricardo Fuller having the best of them with headers. But we didn't hit the target."Fulham had about as many chances as us and it wasn't a game littered with them."We are desperate to get to 40 points. We came here and gave Fulham a game without six regular players. The lads had a go, as they do every week, but Fulham have a very good record at home."[LNB]

Source: Eurosport