Marcus Bettinelli believes Fulham are on the cusp of something special after the Whites won their fifth successive league game by beating Nottingham Forest at Craven Cottage this afternoon.
The Fulham goalkeeper, who produced a sensational double save to help the Whites’ record another clean sheet, told BBC Radio London that the winning run has only served to increase the confidence among Slavisa Jokanovic’s squad as they contemplate another promotion push from the Championship. Bettinelli, who overcome a knock in the warm up to turn in another excellent display, played down his own part in another vital win after the final whistle:
Before the game we said in the changing room, ‘Let’s go out there and get another clean sheet’. We were unlucky not to get one at Barnsley last week. The boys are defending really, really well at the moment and letting the attacking players go forward and do their stuff. Overall today, a really solid performance from the lads. It wasn’t easy. Forest are a really good side – they recruited a lot of players in January and we weren’t sure who was going to start for them. It was a tough game. Thankfully, we kept this run going, got another clean sheet but the most important thing is the three points.
The former England under-21 international was also quick to downplay his personal role in keeping Fulham ahead when he denied Ben Osborn and Apostolos Vellios in quick succession from close range following a slip up by Tomas Kalas.
That is always going to happen with the way we play. We like to play football and that can lead to mistakes. The reaction from the lads when Kalas makes the mistake – obviously I make the save, but from what I remember, there’s three or four lads on that goal-line with me. If I don’t save it, I’m sure someone else does. I think that’s what we’ve shown really well lately – a real commitment and desire to keep clean sheets. I’m glad the save led to us getting three points. At the end of the day, it’s not about me making saves, it’s about us winning games.
Bettinelli was adamant that Fulham can kick on and potentially challenge for an automatic promotion spot if they don’t take their current league position for granted.
Absolutely. We’re full of confidence in training and going into games we’re so confident. I think at the start of the season we struggled a little bit, we were trying to find our feet and our way of playing but we’re on this run at the moment – we’ve got to keep it going. We’ve got to keep on grafting out results – not every game is going to be like when we played Burton. The most important thing is we didn’t drop points and we can’t worry about anyone else, we’ve just got to keep winning for us,
The Fulham academy graduate also believes the club’s promotion chances are much stronger after Jokanovic brought in three new faces in the final week of the January transfer window.
Matty [Targett] came last week and we signed Cyrus [Christie] and Mitro on the last day. I’m sure all three of them are going to be great additions to the squad. I played with Matty before, he’s technically very, very good. I’ve not played with Cyrus but I’ve trained with him, I’m sure he was edging to get on today and make his debut but his time will come I’m sure of it. Mitro’s come on today and done really well for us. Held the ball up really well. We’re going to need everyone. It’s not just about eleven players. It’s about everyone sticking together and digging deep. Today we’ve done that and we’ve shown that in the last four or five games.
