Martin Jol feels that Fulham’s derby demolition of QPR can be the spark that ignites their season.
The Fulham manager told a pre-match press conference ahead of Saturday’s trip to Stoke City that he was surprised by the ease of his side’s victory a fortnight ago – but that the three points, which ended a run of five successive draws, has lifted morale around Motspur Park.
I was surprised by the margin of the win, especially against QPR. They had two away wins so they are good away from home, with [Shaun] Wright-Phillips up front and Adel Taarabt, who is a great talent.
I saw them live the week before against Aston Villa and they looked solid. That said, everything came together for us – support play, up front, midfield, holding them up and stretching them.
We gave them a lot of problems and that is what we did, for example, against West Brom the week before and Twente in the Europa League but we couldn’t score. It was good to see that Andy Johnson scored a couple of goals because that is what you need.
Playing well is important but you need the results as well. We didn’t have the defeats – we had four or five draws in a sequence – but it is not enough to climb the table. Winning always helps mentally and [boosts] the offence as well.
If you get a game like that and win 6-0, it is probably the best feeling you can have. Having a little break left us with four or five players, which was not a lot.
With the other players, the only worry you have got is that they might get injured or even suffer a defeat, which won’t help. Obviously a few players had defeats and a few had good results so it was okay, but for us there is not a lot of difference.
Of course you would like to get together the next day and talk about it, but a win is a win. We don’t have to talk too much.
Aaron Hughes is expected to come back into the Fulham side after shaking off his groin strain, but Jol will be without other key members of his squad, including Bryan Ruiz and Philippe Senderos.
Not everybody is fit and healthy but most of them are. We have got a little problem with Philippe Senderos, who has an injury on his left thigh and will be out for a week.
Dickson [Etuhu] started training on Thursday but that is for another reason [aside from injury] as his wife gave birth to a son. Kerim Frei had a knock on his ankle so he won’t be included and Bryan Ruiz had a knock against his knee in the last game so won’t be included in the squad. He probably needs another seven or eight days.