Fulham boss Slavisa Jokanovic acknowledged the importance of getting a goal so soon after half-time in Fulham’s win at Burton Albion.
A resolute defensive display by the hosts had frustrated his side at the Pirelli Stadium, but Stefan Johansen struck with less than three minutes played after the restart to set the Whites on their way to a 2-0 win.
“I can be satisfied with our performance,” Jokanovic stated. “We tried to play with our style, moving the ball from one side to the other, and creating chances.
“But to be honest, in the first 45 minutes Burton closed everything off and we had possession of the ball but we didn’t create so much.
“We tried to open the field a little bit more in the second half and fortunately we scored an early goal, and that made it easier to win the game.
“We found problems in the first 45 minutes. Burton didn’t cause us so many problems. They wanted to hit us on the counter attack but we avoided this kind of situation.
“After we scored they changed their structure a little bit, but we found a solution for this situation and found a second goal to finish the game.”
The victory moved Fulham to within a win of the Play-Off spots, but as he has often stressed before, Jokanovic is not looking any further ahead than the next fixture.
“I’m not talking about top-six, I’m not thinking about top-six” he reiterated. “On the 7th of May we are going to know where we’re going to finish in this competition.
“I prefer thinking about short steps, and the next chance in front of us is Birmingham. These are three new points to fight for against Birmingham.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen in this game, but we need to work with energy and desire to win the game which is immediately in front of us.
“We are playing with confidence, we believe we can play good football and win the game, and let’s push hard and try to find the benefit of this situation.”