Premiership status virtually assured

Last updated : 17 April 2006 By
Speaking after Saturdays 2 - 1 victory assistant boss Steve Kean was a happy man.

"We hope that is enough for us," he said.

"This win puts a bit more daylight between us and the other teams down there.

"We knew it was going to be difficult against Charlton. But we hope the win is going to be enough, and it sets us up for the last four games."

"We were defending deeper and deeper, and Antti earned his money today with those saves," he said.

"He made two fantastic saves, and all the lads gave him a pat on the back in the dressing room."

"It was a cheeky free-kick for our first goal - but Luis says he went for it," he reported.

"But his second goal was excellent. He's got such pace and power and he showed that before finishing his run off with a right-foot shot - which is not his strongest one."

Charlton boss Alan Curbishley was not so happy. His Charlton side are in 12th and safe from the danger area but with no win in their last three games any outside hopes of a top 6 finish have disappeared.

"Once again we ended up chasing the game - but their first goal infuriated me," said Curbishley

"Their second goal was a great run and finish - but from our point of view you can't let players go past four defenders like that and bear down on goal.

"The two goals we lost today were avoidable, and in between that we probably had the better chances and should have made Fulham pay.

"But we are back to conceding early away from home and having to chase games again. That is exactly what happened on Wednesday against Middlesbrough and again today."

"Fulham have a great record here. I thought we had enough about us to get a point - but sometimes it doesn't work out that way," added Curbishley.

"In the Premiership that first goal is very important. But once we got ourselves back in it, I thought we were the better side and created the better chances.

"We are very disappointed with what we did defensively. Conceding early goals is something that we got out of our system, and we have got to do that again - even if there are only four games left.