Chris Baird has challenged his team-mates to guide Fulham to safety after climbing out of the bottom three.
Baird admits the players were feeling the heat before their first away win in 16 months at Stoke lifted them out of the drop zone and eased the pressure on boss Mark Hughes.
The Northern Ireland international, who scored both Fulham goals at the Britannia, claims they must build on this great win ahead of Saturday’s testing trip to Tottenham.
“I think we all feel the pressure at some stage and when you drop into the bottom three, it’s not nice,” said Baird.
“We’re just delighted to get the points to lift us out of the bottom three.
“Now we must put a good run together and stay away from there.
“Our next game against Spurs will be tough. They are flying high at the minute but we will take confidence from this game going into that one and see what happens.”
Baird was delighted to keep a clean sheet and it was only Fulham’s second in their last nine away games.
“It’s been a tough time for us of late,” he said.
“We’ve not kept many clean sheets in the past few games. Coming here to Stoke, we always knew we were going to be under a lot of pressure because they are a good team.
“But I thought we dealt with that unbelievably well and we’re just glad to get the clean sheet and the three points.
“I’m delighted with my goals, my first for Fulham. The first one, I couldn’t have hit it any better. The second one, I knew I was going to take it as soon as we got the free-kick and I was always going to smash it as hard as I could.”
