Fulham manager Martin Jol was pleased to reach the vital 40 point mark after the Whites came from behind to earn a point at Aston Villa.
We beat Spurs to put us on 36 points – that was not enough, I knew that,” he told the media after the match. “Then we beat QPR, 39 points. There are so many seasons where you needed 39, 40 or even 43 points because one season I think you needed 44 points, so you never know.
Today was a test for us to try to get a result. Of course, Villa do well and, hopefully for them, with their philosophy, with all these youngsters, they will stay up. I say hopefully for them because I’ve got a few managers who are at good clubs who want to stay up as well, but I think the future is theirs.”
You know that you have to string six, seven, eight passes together if you are to create chances against them,” he said. “If you come up with questions then sometimes they’ll have a little problem, that is why they have conceded so many goals.
But I have to say that they were hot and cold. They had a spell in the second half where they deserved a goal and they scored that goal. We had to change things and, luckily enough, we could score the equaliser and be on 40 points because that was our target, our first target.
“If you look at all the other teams, if you look at Aston Villa, they would like to swap with us. Since the first of January we had three defeats and seven or eight wins and draws so we did ever so well.
“I’m a happy customer that we’ve got 40 points, and other results were okay for us today so that is fantastic.”
