John Arne Riise has said Fulham’s team spirit carried them to an unlikely comeback against Manchester City yesterday.
The Norwegian left back also told the offal that the noise generated by a delirious home crowd was ‘incredible’ and he believes that Fulham should move clear of the relegation zone in the coming weeks.
Before I signed for the club I had heard a lot about Fulham’s team spirit and on Sunday I saw it for myself. My brother and Brede had told me stories about the character of the team and the atmosphere of the Cottage – they were right because both were incredible.
The ground was rocking in the second-half and that spread down to the pitch. We knew that the fans were behind us and it gave us that little bit extra. We pressed City higher, forced them to make errors and had them on the back foot for long spells. I thought we were awesome in the second-half and to be honest I think we could have won it at the end, but we can’t dwell on that for too long because at 2-0 down we were out of the game.
But we suddenly grew in confidence, and when Bobby got the goal we really felt that we could get ourselves back into it. The crowd certainly felt so and you could tell that they were willing us forward. When Danny scored the second, the place just erupted – it really was an amazing sound and feeling.
In a strange way it did feel like a win. As I said, perhaps we could have taken more? But we have to be happy with the outcome. Of course, City are a very good side and one that have spent a lot of money. They have some wonderful players and they came into the match having won all four of their previous league games.
I’m not sure how many people would have backed us to come back, but it’s not the first time it has happened at the Cottage is it? I was told all about the fight against relegation a few years back and then there those unbelievable European games – so this is a special place for that.
I know things haven’t gone as we had hoped so far, but with such team spirit we will be fine. We are a good team and hopefully the result against City will give us a bit of rhythm now.
It is a long season and we have plenty of football still to play. For me, each game is getting better and through a lot of hard work and passion we will keep going.
