A poor run of one win in four left Mark Hughes' position in doubt during the festive period, but pressure on the Welshman has now eased following an impressive run of just one defeat in their last six.
Fulham now sit five points outside the relegation zone and are in the last 16 of the FA Cup following last weekend's morale-boosting 4-0 victory over neighbours Spurs at Craven Cottage.
Hangeland was delighted to avenge Fulham's two defeats against Spurs this season, but with tricky games at Manchester City and Chelsea coming up, the Norwegian knows a win on Wednesday night would significantly help his side's chances of staying up.
"The two games we lost against them (Spurs) have been really tight and we've been really disappointed after those games so there was talk of trying to avenge those two games and we certainly did that ," said Hangeland, who scored only his second Fulham goal in Sunday's win.
"The league is the most important thing now and we're a bit too close to the bottom at the moment and we are looking to get away from there as soon as possible."
Loan signings Eidur Gudjohnsen and Gael Kakuta are expected to be on the bench after both moving to SW6 on temporary deals from Stoke and Chelsea respectively.