Hodgson remains cautious

12 April 2009 19:21
Roy Hodgson has continued to play down talk of his Fulham side qualifying for Europe next season despite rising to eighth in the table. Fulham defeated fellow European hopefuls Manchester City 3-1 at Eastlands on Sunday to put them one point behind seventh-placed West Ham. The Cottagers had to come from behind to beat City and won the game thanks to second half goals from Dickson Etuhu and a double from Clint Dempsey. With seventh place likely to be rewarded with qualification into next season's rebranded Europa League - if one of the current top four win the FA Cup - the West Londoners find themselves in prime position with six games to go. "I think there are a lot of teams still involved there. The important thing for us is to keep up the good work," Hodgson told Sky Sports. "There are six games to play, we need more points from those six games and we will see if that points total is enough at the end of the day. "After the season we had last season to get into the Uefa Cup in my opinion is asking too much. Expectations "If we get into the Uefa Cup you'll be asking me if we can get into the UEFA Champions League. I think I'll keep expectation lower than that. "It would be very, very nice to stay in the top half of the table. If you could guarantee me that now I would sign for it straight away." After falling behind to a Stephen Ireland strike on 28 minutes, having dominating the early exchanges, Hodgson pin-pointed his side's belief as the main reason they eventually came out on top. "I think belief is always a key," he added. "We could have easily, after the disappointment of last week and going a goal down in the first half in a game where you've had more than your fair share, thought it's not going your way. "But you've got to fight those things and keep playing the same way and keep doing what we're doing, the chances will come and we'll score goals and that's what happened today." The former Inter Milan boss was also pleased with the way his side applied themselves after the disappointment of losing late on against Liverpool last time out. Cruel blow "We had a great result against Manchester United in a game that was quite tight and then last week we battled so well and it was cruel to lose it in the last minute after battling so hard," he explained. "But one is always worried as a coach if you are going to suffer in the next game a little bit whether disappointment is going to set in. "We're coming to a very difficult place, I thought the way we went about our business today was very good and we were very unlucky to go a goal down at half time from that wonder strike from Stephen Ireland. "But the boys came out shrugged it off and played the same football and luckily we got our rewards."

Source: SKY_Sports