Roy Hodgson insists that Fulham’s famous win at Fratton Park last season will have no bearing on this weekend’s encounter – and the Whites boss is desperate to pick up a rare away win.
“It’s a totally new situation. The fact that we won there last year doesn’t give us any sort of particular right to win their this year. If we’re going to win in Portsmouth we’ve got to play better than them. I am concerned, this year our three away games have not brought any points and I’m mostly concerned because all three of those games should have produced points. We should have got at least one point from each of the three games.
The performances have not really shown us to be actually on the slide, but of course the results have and the major factor is that we haven’t actually scored as many goals as we should have scored. I think our players merited more goals than we’ve actually got in our goal tally, but obviously it’s got to do with the fact that Johnson and Zamora have only played two games together and it’s early in the season for them.”
Hodgson isn’t currently fretting over Fulham’s league position with some pundits and fans exercised over how close the Cottagers are to the drop zone.
“I think we’re in good company, I mean as I say, I think in the Premier League there are four untouchables, aren’t there basically? I think we’d all be very surprised if they found themselves in any sort of trouble whatsoever, but apart from that any team can finish fifth or sixth one year and then find themselves fighting relegation the next year, so there is no reason why a team that’s been fighting relegation one year can’t find itself fifth or sixth.”
I think that the experience of last season when after 20 games we had 13 points, we’re a long way off that and I think after 20 games this season we’ll have a lot more than 13 points. I’ll be very, very surprised if we don’t.”
