Cyrus Christie was delighted to help Fulham earn ‘a big point’ on his debut for the Whites at Bristol City last night.
The full back, who arrived from Middlesbrough for a reported fee of £3m on transfer deadline day, made Fulham’s opening goal with a superb assist for Aleksandar Mitrovic after being handed a surprise start in place of Ryan Fredericks after Slavisa Jokanovic rung the changes following Saturday’s win over Aston Villa. Christie told GetWestLondon’s Ryan O’Donovan after the final whistle:
We fought well, we battled hard and ground out a result. I think we got drawn into their style of play, which wasn’t ours, and we came away from the way we play and on another day we come out on top.
We had a couple of chances there to put the game to bed and we let them back into the game, which was annoying, but at the end of the day we picked up a point against a top team that have been up there for the whole season. You look at some of the results they’ve had against the top teams like Manchester City and United and we knew we’d be in for a tough game and we’ve come away with a point, and we may look back on that and see it as a big point.
The 25 year-old revealed he has settled in well following his move at the end of January and hopes to contribute to Fulham’s bid to return to the top flight.
I’ve settled in really well and it’s been fantastic. All the lads are nice and the staff are really welcoming and everyone has made me feel welcome. For me it’s a fantastic opportunity to come to a club like this and mount a promotion push.
Christie also opened up about where he may feature for Jokanovic, suggesting that he could play in front of Fredericks as a right winger – reviving his first role in senior football.
I’ve played there before, the manager here has mentioned it to me as well, he’s mentioned centre half and left back too. I’ve played in all those positions over my career, I started as winger, he’s mentioned about me and Freddo playing on the same side and I think it will be good considering the attributes we both have but it’s up to the manager, I just have to keep training hard and impressing him and showing him what I’m capable of and regaining my match fitness. We can only go from strength to strength now as a team.
