Fulham boss Scott Parker insisted his side were ready for the play-offs after their feint hopes of automatic promotion were extinguished following a 1-1 draw at Wigan Athletic tonight.
“I think we were realistic in the way we framed it. We knew what we had to do tonight and, to bring the season to the last day was a massive positive for us. We took it to the wire but it’s not happened for us. We knew that it was well out of our hands tonight, and understood that the likelihood was that we’d be going through the play-offs.”
“We lost two games coming out of lockdown and since then we’ve been in very good form, the team have done remarkably well – that’s seven unbeaten now. Of course, when you are so close there is that element of ‘can we do it?’, but at the same time you’re relying on other teams to slip up Now we move on. We go into the play-offs now in form and with momentum.”
Parker was saddened by the fact that Wigan are likely to end up in League One after a points deduction rendered their outstanding run of form at the end of the season largely irrelevant.
“I have sympathy for Paul (Cook) and Wigan and the job he’s done because it’s been a fantastic job. To think you have a 12-point deduction and you still need to win the game tonight to stay in the division, I have nothing but sympathy for him. We knew the task ahead of us. There was a team here fighting for their lives, had to win the game, had nothing to lose and was going to come out of the blocks firing, and the same could be said about us.
“It was an end-to-end game in the end and both teams knew that they needed to try and win the game. For us, to give us a chance and hope that West Brom slip up, but at the same time Wigan needed to win as well. It becomes a bit of a basketball match at the end -very entertaining. But obviously there is a sympathy for Paul and Wigan certainly.”
