Fulham full back Ryan Fredericks is expecting a tough game against Bristol City on his return to Ashton Gate tonight.
The right back spent just 26 days with tonight’s opponents before moving to Fulham for personal reasons at the end of August 2015 and he knows that Lee Johnson’s side pose a serious threat to the Whites’ ten-game unbeaten run. Fredericks told the club’s official website:
Everyone knows it is going to be a tough game. They’ve got a lot of young, energetic players who will probably press us high up the pitch. We know we are in for a tough game. We also know as long as we play our stuff then we’ll be fine – and hopefully, we’ll get the three points.
The 25 year-old believes Fulham’s memories of securing a play-off spot with an excellent run of form at the end of the last season will stand the squad in good stead as they approach a critical run of fixtures that could define their campaign this time around.
We’ve got experience from last season to know that we can go on long unbeaten runs and keep winning. We’ve started earlier this season so we’re more than confident we can keep the run going to the end of the season. We’ve had important games against some of the teams around the top this season when we’ve needed to win – and we’ve won them – so that gives us even more confidence going into the next set of games, where we’ve got some of the other teams at the top of the table.
He also believes Slavisa Jokanovic’s side can take real confidence from the way in which they eventually ground down promotion chasing Aston Villa at Craven Cottage on Saturday.
It was a good game. The first half wasn’t the best for us, it was a bit of a tight nervous 45 minutes to be fair, but as soon as we got that goal early in the second half, it opened up for us. They had to come out of their shape a bit and try and impose themselves on the game. It opened up for us and we could have scored three or four.
A lot of the play had gone down the left side before and it was a bit unbalanced. We tried to get the ball out to the other side a bit more, get Floyd on the ball more and it freed up their left back. It freed up space for me to exploit and, luckily, that’s how we got the first goal.
Fredericks was keen to downplay the importance of his own performance against Villa at the weekend – eschewing talking too much about his richly deserved man of the match award and focus on the team’s display.
It’s always nice to get a bit of recognition from the fans, but obviously the main thing for everyone at the moment is just the team performance and picking up three points. Obviously, personal accolades are nice as well but we’re desperate three points in every game we play in, so that’s the main thing at the moment.
