Fulham moved to 10th place in the Premier League table after an impressive 3-0 defeat of Blackpool on Sunday but manager Mark Hughes insists he is staying grounded until the club has enough points to be considered safe from the relegation zone.
The Cottagers’ boss hailed striker Bobby Zamora’s return to form as he found the back of the net twice in the first half in just five minutes.
“He has been under the weather. He’s had headcolds and hasn’t been sleeping properly and he wasn’t quite as lively during the week as he normally is,” he told reporters
“You can normally hear Bobby before you see him. This was the perfect game for him.
“It was important he got over the last hurdle that he had after his injury in terms of getting a few games and I couldn’t have hoped for a better impact from him.
“Straight from the off he showed quality that we missed and lacked for many games this season. It’s the perfect day for him.”
Midfielder Dickson Etuhu scored the last goal to claim all three points, the first to his name since August.
Hughes feels like the pressure from the first few months of the season has dropped and that his side can relax now that they have achieved the goals they had set for this campaign, especially with Zamora back on the team sheet.
“We’ve been talking about being a top 10 side all season and we’ve never wavered from that view,” he added.
“It’s nice at the moment that we’re in that 10th position and I think we’re just three points from 7th and it’s possible that we can really establish ourselves from now till the end of the season in that top half which is what we anticipated we would do this season.
“We lost key personnel, Bobby being the key one in that respect and that hampered our season.
“We’ve been really strong and accomplished in the second half of the season and we knew we would be.
“The players are really progressing as a group, they’re receptive and really getting the job done and that’s all we can ask from them.
“Obviously Bobby coming back is a huge boost to everybody, not least me because he’s a great option and the facts that he’s in a Fulham shirt now, starting games gives the rest of the team great confidence as well.”
However, the former Manchester City boss still has the battle against relegation at the back of his mind and insists that Fulham could still find themselves back in the drop-zone.
The Cottagers now stand six points above the bottom three, on 38 points with both Stoke City and Sunderland and although the teams above are in reaching distance, Hughes is still remaining cautious.
Hughes said: “It’s not done and dusted till you get the points that you know mathematically that you can’t go down, there’s always a little bit of a worry.
“In terms of what we’re producing and how we played in the last two three months, I don’t have any concerns.
“Quality of our performances will allow us to pick up more points between now and the end of the season and that should certainly allow us to be safe.
“But until we actually get them on the board you can never say never.”
