Fulham manager Martin Jol has said that he is pleased with the performance of his players despite the fact that they came extremely close to being knocked out of the Capital One cup by League Two opposition in the form of Burton.
Fulham came into the encounter as the clear favourites because they are playing in the top division of English football, while their opposition were in the bottom tier. Despite this vast advantage in terms of quality, Fulham barely managed to beat the opposition. They could only manage a 2-2 draw with Burton.
In the end, they managed to progress to the third round only because of a penalty victory. The 5-4 victory on penalties was extremely harsh on the lower league opposition, but Jol was pleased with the results in the end. The club recently signed former Tottenham striker Darren Bent on a loan deal from Aston Villa till the end of the season. Fulham also have former Tottenham striker Dimitar Berbatov in the ranks as well. Jol chose to rest a number of key players for this encounter in the hope that their replacements will be able to handle the lower league opposition, but it was not the case because Fulham were totally dominated.
“Firstly, I think it was a great game of football. It was very satisfying that we kept going and we tried to grind out a result. That is resilience and mentality, and that is what we want. We want a winning team again. It could have been a bad night for us. The crowd smelt blood but we showed character and responded and it turned out nice in the end. We put a strong side out because we wanted to win the tie,” said Jol. Fulham’s next match will be against Newcastle United in the Premier league.