Martin Jol was delighted with Fulham’s spirit and application as his side battled to a 2-1 win at high-flying West Brom to end their alarming slide down the Premier League table.
The Fulham boss felt his side were well worth the three points that came courtesy of a second half strike from Swedish winger Alex Kacaniklic – even if the winner came against the run of play as the Baggies pushed forward in search of a second of their own following Romelu Lukaku’s equaliser.
We needed a bit of luck. We did well in the first half and scored a good goal. In the second half, they changed their formation a bit, the crowd got behind them and we conceded a soft goal again. But we picked things up again, found ourselves in midfield and, over the whole game, I felt the win was deserved.
Jol revealed that Fulham’s preperations for their first fixture of 2013 were hindered by 2,000 noisy revellers seeing in the New Year outside their Birmingham hotel.
Probably the best fireworks were yesterday at 12 o’clock in front of my hotel! That was annoying. I said we needed a quiet hotel and it was unbelievable. There were 2,000 people in front of my window!
I think it kept the players up too so I was worried. At first I thought it was fans, but it wasn’t. To then get a win under our belts the next day, on the first of January, is fantastic.
It was typical English! Unbelievable celebrations for 15 or 20 minutes then everybody goes home and shoots off and it’s quiet after 30 minutes! I was in a penthouse suite at the Hyatt Hotel. The next time we’ll go to the Moat House where I lived for seven months when I was younger.
