(Photograph: Mike Gregg; @1966MJG/Twitter)
Slavisa Jokanovic saluted Fulham’s ‘fight’ after the Whites shrugged off the setback of seeing Chris Martin sent off to beat Norwich City 3-1 and keep up the pressure on Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship play-off race.
The Fulham head coach was delighted by Fulham’s character in response to Martin’s dismissal on the stroke of half time and the desire and work rate of his players as the visitors delivered a footballing masterclass with only ten men to slice the Canaries open at will on the break.
This is a very tough place to come to – they have a lot of good players and had only lost here three times all season. We knew we had to be well organised, we needed to be at our best, and we also had to be very strong mentally, especially after the red card.
We played to a good level, everyone worked very hard, and we got the result we wanted. You could see the desire of my players out there, they showed the fight needed to get a result at places like these.
The Serbian, who has been largely non-committal about Fulham’s promotion chances all season, conceded his side were in ‘a good position’ to put pressure on Sheffield Wednesday during the run-in and insisted that there would be ‘no surrender,’ as today’s dominant display showed.
After 42 games we are in a good position to challenge for the play-offs and everyone is determined to finish in the top six. As you saw today there will be no surrender.
Jokanovic also confirmed that Fulham would appeal Martin’s red card after he was sent off for an elbow on Mitchell Dijks – a decision he hotly disputes.
We will certainly appeal. I had a good view and although Chris touches their player, it was just two players fighting for the ball. There was no intention at all, no aggression.
