Tim Ream is particularly pleased that free-scoring Fulham have tightened up at the back as the league leaders registered a second successive clean sheet in a tight win at Hull City this afternoon.
The American centre back told FFCTV that narrow wins like the one Marco Silva’s side ground out in East Yorkshire are the hallmark of promotion contenders.
“Sometimes those feel better than the 7-0s and the 6-2s. At times, we had to dig in – especially towards the end. We leave here with three points, Mitro has another goal to add to his tally and we keep it rolling. We stuck to our game and tried to do what we what regularly do. Conditions not perfect, but it doesn’t matter.
We’ve been talking about getting back to clean sheets: two on the bounce now, two in a week. Good times and we’re happy with that. We said at half-time, if we keep a clean sheet, we’ll win the game. The entire team were defending together, attacking together and we’ve come away with the result.”
Ream lavished praise on Fulham’s matchwinners: goalscorer extraordinaire Aleskandar Mitrovic, whose second half header clinched the three points, and new signing Neco Williams, who provided the cross for the winner.
“Do we even need to talk about him [Mitrovic] any more? Wow. It’s just the way he scores goals. That header is not an easy header and he’s able to put it on frame. It’s just incredible. He’s so confident in and around the box, hopefully that continues and we continue in the position that we’re in. Neco’s settled in great, he understands the way we want to play. We tell everyone to feed Mitro and he will do good things for us. Neco, credit to him has bought right into it and has settled in very well.
The 34 year-old admitted that Fulham’s unbeaten run saw the turn of the year had not been talked about in the dressing room – with the focus remaining on the next fixture in isolation. He feels that strict concentration on the next test is crucial in keeping the squad grounded.
“We’ve not actually discussed within the squad that we’re unbeaten in 2022. We’re trying to take each game at a time, take three points and stay top of the league. That comes from the work that people don’t see on a day in, day out basis on the training ground and everything that goes into the peformances. It’s been a fantastic start and one we’re going to look to continue on.”
