Clint: No Jol impact over Ramos

Fulham's Clint Dempsey has denied manager Martin Jol's history with Juande Ramos acted as added motivation against Dnipro on Thursday night. The United States international followed up his first-half effort with a header shortly after the restart to help the Cottagers to an impressive 3-0 home victory against Ramos' side in the Europa League play-off first leg.The Spaniard replaced Jol as Tottenham manager four years ago but the Dutchman managed to exact some revenge at Craven Cottage.Dempsey denied the managers' history acted as added motivation and instead preferred to focus on the team's success."[Their history] was not something that played on our minds," he said on Monday. "It was about coming out here and winning the game."We knew that we needed to get some goals here at home because it's going to be a difficult away leg. We were able to do that."Getting three goals is great but the most important thing is that we're able to keep a clean sheet even though at times it maybe looked a little bit scary in the second half. They had some good chances."He added: "We try to play the right way."We have a lot of honest guys on the team that work hard and we have a good core group of guys that have been here through the most successful period in Fulham's history."We've had a lot of managers change in a short amount of time."But we stick together and every time a manager comes in we all try to get on the same page and do the best that we can."We are excited about the new manager that we have and everybody wants to impress."These games are important early on, you want to gain his confidence and show him that you want to be out there and play as many games as possible."That's what it's about."Dempsey's goals were complemented by Aaron Hughes' opener, meaning the west Londoners head to Ukraine next week with a three-goal advantage.The Texas-born midfielder believes the result puts Fulham in a "good position" and admitted he was relieved to net his first goals of the season."The first three games I didn't have many shots and that was frustrating," he said."I tried to come out tonight and make sure I took advantage of the chances that I did get and I'm happy I have two goals now."For the first goal, I had a late run in, it was a great ball in from Siddy (Steve Sidwell)."I was thinking about taking it on my right foot but at the last minute decided to go with my left. I just had a better feeling with it."I was able to redirect it and put it in."And then before the cross I was able to make a little room for myself and get the header. So I'm excited about that."Obviously, a lot of credit to the people who were putting the balls into the box. But I was pleased to take advantage of the chances I did get tonight."Dempsey's second goal was set up by summer signing Pajtim Kasami, who made his first start for the Cottagers on Thursday night since moving from Serie A outfit Palermo."He's very skilful, he's confident," said Dempsey."He tries things and it's about just finding that right balance to know what you can and can't get away with."I think that his future looks bright and he put in a good performance tonight."

Source: Team_Talk