Andy Johnson says he has struck up a fine understanding with new striker partner Pavel Pogrebnyak and that together the pair can fire Fulham up the table in the closing weeks of the campaign.

The 31 year-old was unlucky not to find the net himself during Fulham’s 5-0 romp against Wolves this afternoon but praised the finishing ability of his new team-mate, who recorded the perfect hat-trick to add to his astonishing start at Craven Cottage.

Pav was fantastic and he’s shown again just how good he is in front of goal. Five goals in three games is brilliant and he deserved that match ball today. We’re all made up for him and I’m sure he won’t forget today in a hurry.

I didn’t get my name on the score sheet, but I’m pleased with my contribution – it’s probably the sharpest I have felt all season today. As a striker, obviously I love putting the ball in the net, but there’s more to my game. I hit the crossbar and worked their ‘keeper a couple of times, so on another day that might have been different.

But I played my part in three of the goals and that’s important. It’s not about individuals, it’s about the team and this was a game in which every player played their part.

From front to back it was an amazing performance. We got off to a really good start and that’s something we have probably lacked at times this season. In some games we’ve been a bit slow, but today we were straight out of the blocks and really dominated the game.

We went into the match on the back of two straight wins, so to build on that was fantastic. To win three games in succession doesn’t happen that often in the Premier League, so it’s been a very positive period for us. We’ve moved up to eighth as a result, and I think we’ll all agree that is a good place to be. The target at the start of the season was a top 10 finish and we’re working towards that now. But we’ll keep our feet on the ground, keep working hard and ultimately we’ll see where that takes us.

It clicked into place and we played really well as a team; moving the ball around nicely and creating lots of chances. We scored five but it could well have been six, seven or even eight. It was an exciting match to be part of, and while it was a good one for us players, again, I’d like to take the chance in thanking the fans because I thought they were amazing again today. Their support means a lot to us.

At this stage of the season you want to get as far away as you can from that bottom group of clubs – you want to be looking up not down. In recent weeks we’ve managed to open up a gap and that’s given us a real boost. We have a lot of confidence now and I think we can go on and be the best we can be. We finished seventh at the end of the 2008/09 and eighth last season, so who knows what we can do this year? There are still 11 games to go, so hopefully we can finish the campaign in style and secure another memorable finish.