Tomas Kalas felt Fulham’s ‘togetherness’ was key to their vital victory over Norwich City yesterday – and that the squad fully believes they can go on a winning run to secure a Championship play-off place.
The Czech Republic international saluted Fulham’s character and determination as they outplayed the Canaries with ten men and stood firm despite having lost Chris Martin before half-time. Speaking to FulhamFCTV after the final whistle at Carrow Road, Kalas was adamant that the visitors fully deserved the three points:
It would be difficult even if we played eleven against eleven and, especially when you play the whole second half ten against eleven, it’s even harder but we showed some character, some togetherness and still I think that there was just one team on the pitch who deserved to win.
We were trying to stay together and, when the whole team is together, then it’s easier to defend. We’ve done it properly, we’ve done it well and the result was that we conceded just one and we could score more goals from counter-attacks.
The on-loan centre back said there was no room for doubts after he won an early second-half penalty following a brainless challenge from Norwich’s Ryan Bennett – and his faith in skipper Tom Cairney was well founded.
Easy. That we should score. We can’t be missing any more. That was clear and I think TC’s done it brilliantly. He would have taken it even if he wasn’t captain. We knew he was going to take it and I think he knew was going to score.
Kalas, who won promotion from the Championship last season with Middlesbrough, believes the victory was vital to maintain the pressure on Sheffield Wednesday and the other occupants of the play-off places but the on-loan defender insisted his team-mates were confident that they could string together a run of results to extend Fulham’s season.
That we are not five points behind Sheffield Wednesday, but we are still two points behind and if we win all our games until the end of the season, we are going to get into the play-offs. If we didn’t believe, we don’t have to even play. That’s what everyone in this squad believes and we know that we are the best playing team in this league and if we keep up with it, then obviously we can do it.
