With the final whistle having just blown down at the Cottage, I sit here, in my living room as a pretty happy Fulham fan.

The first three minutes were all Fulham’s however, despite scoring in these early stages, the next 42 minutes plus injury time belonged to Shakhtar. Their passing was memorising at times and the Fulham players often found themselves chasing shadows. Their play finally got them a deserved equaliser.

The second half was adifferent story. Hodgson must have said to the boys in that dressing room, “Anything they can do, we can do too!” After some quality passing, Fulham began to create more chances. The delivery from Duff in particular was superb and it was just a matter of trying to get somebody on the end of the crosses.

Then the 63rd minute produced a moment of brilliance. The combination of BZ to Gera for the first goal was reversed and a sweet pass from Gera was thumped by Zamora off the bottom of the crossbar and into the goal. I’m not even sure the Shakhtar keeper saw it coming. Soon after Zamora had a chance to double his tally but he headed the ball just wide.

A final piece of fine passing from Shakhtar nearly give them another equaliser but Schwarzer was equal to it.

Now we have set ourselves up nicely for a Ukranian showdown next Thursday night. We should be aiming to get an early away goal and keep a clean sheet.

We are still in with a shout!