Sheyi Ojo revealed his fine finish that settled Fulham’s Championship clash with Birmingham City on Saturday was the product of some special finishing drills down at Motspur Park.

The Liverpool loanee’s third goal of the season saw off the struggling Blues but his close-range conversion of Neeskens Kebano’s left-wing cross was anything but straightforward. The 20 year-old winger told Fulham FCTV after the final whistle that his goal owed more to finesse and hard graft on the training ground than the powerful approach he had previously favoured:

This week I’ve been working on my finishing a lot – receiving crosses into the box and luckily it managed to go in. I think I can definitely improve on it. I had another chance in the second half with [Ryan] Sess[egnon]. I should score, so there’s a lot to improve as well.

The Under 20 World Cup winner also disclosed that his clever run to finish a flowing Fulham passing move was partly inspired by instructions from head coach Slavisa Jokanovic.

Playing on the right, the manager’s keen on me attacking the near post whenever I can. I sort of sensed that Neeskens was going to cross it and I’ve run near post, it’s come and I’ve just like glanced it in, rather than trying to smash it, which is the technique that I’ve been working on during the week in training. I’m just happy to help the team and get the three points.

Ojo was delighted that Fulham managed to bounce back from the disappointment of a below-par display at Brentford by claiming a vital victory that lifted the Whites back into the top half of the table.

That’s what we wanted. We’re trying to help the fans, give them a game that they enjoy and ultimately get the three points. Last week was really disappointing for us, so from day one in training we’ve been focusing on the next game and trying to get back to winning ways. We’ve managed to do that today – so we’ll enjoy these three points, but it’s back to another hard game against Sunderland.