Denis Odoi was delighted to contribute his first Fulham goal as the Whites came from behind to clinch a vital victory over Wigan Athletic on Saturday – but has urged Slavisa Jokanovic’s side to be honest about their failings and continue to improve.
The Belgian full-back rifled home an outstanding equaliser from fully 25 yards to drag Fulham out of a self-inflicted hole against Warren Joyce’s side but, speaking to the club’s official website, laughed off suggestions that Stefan Johansen’s quickly-taken free-kick was a rehearsed move from the Motspur Park training ground.
Not at all! I was just waiting for Stef to drop it into the box, but then also the coach was shouting at me to be available. Then Stef played it and I just took a strike. Most of the time it goes wide, but this time it went in and I’m happy that I could help in this way.
It was a nice strike – don’t expect me to do that every week though! I’m happy but the most important thing was getting the three points, which was necessary.
Odoi echoed his head coach in highlighting parts of Fulham’s patchy performance as containing real areas for improvement if they are to increase the pressure on the Championship’s top six.
Everybody’s happy of course to get the three points and to stay in the running for a play-off spot, but we also need to be critical about our performance and we know as a team that we need to defend better. I think it was very important that we got this win, because if we hadn’t then we would have lost a bit of ground on the top six. It’s good that we came through towards the end.
We had the majority of the ball possession but I think defensively we weren’t solid enough and that’s what caused us to have problems. If we’d been more solid in defence then the game would have been easier for us.
The defender, who will enjoy an extended run in the side as a result of Ryan Fredericks’ suspension, has exhorted his team-mates to concentrate on the task in hand.
We just need to focus. It’s going to be a very important week, especially Tuesday if we want to stay in the running for a play-off spot. We need to be solid at home and always keep the three points at Craven Cottage, and that’s the case against Nottingham Forest.
