Fulham goalkeeping coach Dave Beasant admits that the Whites’ narrow win over Norwich was ‘massive’ and can provide a real kickstart for the club’s season.

Chris Coleman’s side emerged victorious at Carrow Road courtesy of Andrew Cole’s early strike and Beasant told the club’s official website that he was delighted with Fulham’s character.

“That was a massive game. We kept telling the players, and we had to get them to understand, that the Norwich game was bigger than the Chelsea game, and it was – it was our biggest game of the season. Basically we’ve got to make sure we beat the teams below us and keep them down there.

“The Chelsea game had given us the chance to get the Blackburn performance out of our system, and to go up to Norwich with a bit of confidence. We thought we deserved to have got more out of the Chelsea game, but it let us prepare for Saturday – we told the players to take all the good things out of that performance and put them into the match against Norwich, and I think that they did that.

“There were a lot of good things – you saw Carlos wanting the ball from Edwin; you saw both full backs splitting and giving us the opportunity to play out from the back. We don’t want our keepers having to smash the ball seventy yards every time they get it in their hands – the way we played at the back enabled us to play the ball out, and that made a big difference.

“Our first half performance on Saturday was the equal of any of our best performances this season. It was important that we got that early goal, and it was important for Coley to score – everybody takes confidence from individuals doing well.

“All it needs sometimes is someone winning a 60-40 challenge that’s against him, and it can give the whole team a lift. That challenge, or winning a header, or someone doing whatever they do, can get the team suddenly clicking, and everybody thinks – I can do that.

“Sometimes you need something like that to kick you on, and Coley did that with his goal.”