Harrison Reed can’t wait for Friday night when Fulham take on Bournemouth at Craven Cottage in a clash of the Championship’s top two.
The former Southampton midfielder insisted that Scott Parker had done a good job at Fulham and been a key part in bringing him to the club, but admits the fixture will have an extra edge. Reed told FFCTV this afternoon that he is almost fully recovered from the bug that had hit him hard over the last week or so. It is a measure of Reed’s commitment to the cause that he started both games despite feeling seriously under the weather:
“Getting there. It’s been a tough week – I think for the whole squad, to be honest. After the Barnsley game, a few players came down with it and it seemed to spread throughout the team. We had to try and do what we had to do last week and we came away with two points and the teams around us matched us, so we got away with it a little bit.
Reed admitted the squad were disappointed to drop points at Preston North End last weekend and reiterated that he felt the North End equaliser should have been ruled out:
“Yeah, it does. It was clear on the pitch to a few of the players, I didn’t quite see it. It was handball. A few of the boys tried to speak to the ref but he wasn’t open to changing his decision. Our performance in the second half wasn’t at our best. To come away with a point from a tough place to go, we’ll take and go into Friday.”
He is now fully focused on the tough task presented by the Cherries, who will be eager to reclaim top spot with a win on Friday.
“It’s set up to be a great game. It’s been us two at the top throughout the whole season. We’ve pulled away a little bit from third. We need to pull away from second now. We need to keep pushing, work hard this week and put in a good performance on Friday night. Night games are the best, especially at home. We seem to perform really well, the results always seem to be good. We can’t wait to get going. It’s going to be a special atmosphere. The fans this season have been top drawer. Every home and away game they’ve been heard and I expect the same on Friday night, with a little bit of extra edge.”
Reed also revealed how incoming Fulham head coach Marco Silva has reshaped his own role having replaced Parker during the summer.
“I’m a little bit more advanced. It’s something we spoke about earlier in the season when I was actually injured. We had a couple of meetings and he spoke to me about positions and how he sees me fitting in the team: it was slightly more advanced, more box-to-box role. It was something I was really happy to hear and its over to me to try and add more goals and assists at the other end of the pitch.”
