Beat any Premier League team then you should be pleased

Last updated : 24 September 2008 By Tony Scholes
The result was hardly unexpected, we all know Fulham don't win at Burnley, but they have visited us five times in the last decade and been favourites each time, but on all five occasions have seen the Clarets come out on top.

Ray Wilkins, Kevin Keegan, Jean Tigana and now Roy Hodgson have failed to halt Burnley's run of home successes over Fulham who last won at Turf Moor when Tommy Trinder was still struggling to make people laugh in music hall.

Bill Dodgin Senior was the last Fulham manager to take a win home and Hodgson was the latest to admit his disappointment. "Of course I'm disappointed," said former Blackburn boss Hodgson.

"I thought it looked like being a draw. It looked as though it was going to extra time but we conceded one so close to the end that there's not much time to get back into it. I'm very disappointed that we didn't take the game into extra time because the way we defended against a very strong and organised Burnley team would have merited that.

"To be fair, our passing wasn't as good as it has been in some of the games. A lot of these players haven't played many matches and it was good for them to get a match at this high, competitive level. It was a very strong game and I'm pleased with the way we stood up to that but I'm a little disappointed that we couldn't continue the good spell we had at the start of the second half a little bit longer.

"Obviously I thought we could have done better, the team we had on the field was a good team. There were stages in the game where we passed the ball well and our movement was good. But we didn't do it consistently well enough in the 90 minutes to cause them enough problems.

"The plus points are the people like Baird, Kallio, Zuberbuhler, Stoor, Andranik, Clint Dempsey, Erik Nevland and Leon Andreasen, all people who haven't featured that much this season all got a chance to play.

"The Premiership has always got to remain a priority for us, we've got a very important game at the weekend and we had players who were suffering from minor injuries. To risk them in a game like this and maybe be without them at the weekend, that was something I couldn't do. Credit to Burnley, they put in a real fighting performance but I think we matched them both in terms of fight and quality of defending. But a goal is what decides the game, and they got it, we didn't."

Hodgson also spoke on television after the game claiming (quite wrongly) that his central defender had slipped to bring about our winner from Jay Rodriguez and also that his side had faced a barrage of long balls.

Iit was no surprise that Owen Coyle had a few words about his teenage striker after he came off the bench to win the game for us with that calm as you like finish. "I thought we were deserving of the win and I was delighted with the young kid for the way he took the goal.

"Sometimes you get lucky with substitutions and I don't want to take anything away from Jay Rodriguez and Chris Eagles. Chris made a magnificent ball through and put through a terrifically weighted pass and young Jay showed a level of composure that speaks volumes for him."

I'm sure when I tell him he is playing for the reserves though on Wednesday it will bring him back down to earth. But he is a level headed kid who is hungry to do well. Jay knows he is on his way to progressing and we will try to furnish him with the opportunities.

"One-on-one with the goalkeeper you always fancy the kid and I saw him scored a similar goal when I sent him out on loan last year to Stirling Albion. I went up to see him and he did it against my old team St. Johnstone. I have seen that from a number of players in my career, but this kid has a chance. Now, when he gets it he has to take it."

On the game itself, Coyle said: "I think when you beat any Premier League team then you should be pleased. We felt we had to keep the pace of the game high and keep it close and I certainly felt we earned the victory.

"It was important that we kept our unbeaten run going and we have done that when not many people outside Burnley would have fancied us. I think we have shown we are capable of competing with big team and now we have a massive home game against Preston on Saturday."