Fulham did not seem to miss Louis Saha too much last weekend.
Although they did need to come back from a goal down at home to Tottenham Hotspur, and Chris Coleman admitted that he was relieved to get a win.
“In the first half we got out of jail because I didn’t think we deserved to go in at 1-1,” said Coleman. “They coped better with the conditions than us but we upped it in the second half and got the result. This was a big result for us. We are now two wins away from 40 points which remains our first target, and once we get there we can march on and set our sights on something else.”
Fulham won 2-1 again on Wednesday night in their FA Cup replay against Everton, it was no less difficult.
Junichi Inamoto looked to have won it for the Cottagers with his second half goal, but Francis Jeffers popped up with another late equaliser to send the game into extra-time.
Fortunately for the home fans, Steed Malbranque restored their advantage and this time they held on to book their place in the next round.
Fulham will hope to do much better than they did on their last trip to St Mary’s, in October 2002, when they went 2-0 up after just twenty minutes and then proceeded to self-destruct.
Goals from Lee Clark and Steed Malbranque had seemed to set Fulham on their way to glory, but two James Beattie strikes before half-time levelled the scores and he added another after the break to put the Saints ahead, with Brett Ormerod completing the turnaround to make it 4-2.
