Slavisa Jokanovic confident Fulham can march on to promotion

Posted Sunday, February 04, 2018 by PA

Slavisa Jokanovic remains confident Fulham can continue the push for promotion to the Premier League.

Fulham made it five wins in a row after their 2-0 victory over Nottingham Forest to climb to fifth place in the Championship table .

Second-half goals from Lucas Piazon and Stefan Johansen wrapped up the win and manager Jokanovic said: “It’s five wins, six wins at home. The sensation is positive.

“We knew today was not going to be easy for us. At the end my team showed the quality, the trust and played good football.

“We started to believe in ourselves two months ago. We believe we can play good football. We believe if we support each other we can win the game.

“We are just thinking about the next game because we are at the beginning of February. We haven’t done anything yet.”

Jokanovic hailed the impact of new signing Aleksander Mitrovic, who made an impact on his debut.

“Mitrovic showed he is a strong man,” he added.

“He brings on the pitch physical presence. He is without any activity on the pitch so he is probably going to need some days but we are working hard to put him in the optimal physical level.

“We expect new signings Matt Targett, Cyrus Christie and Mitrovic to push the team and will be a great help.”

Fulham capitalised on goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon’s error, one of five Forest debutants, to finally lead via Piazon after 67 minutes.

Forest had their chances, no more so when goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli foiled Ben Osborn and substitute Apostolos Vellios late on.

It proved a critical moment as another error, this time from Forest’s Joe Worrall, saw Johansen net in the 90th minute.

Nottingham Forest manager Aitor Karanka, who made six new signings on deadline day, says his side will improve once they have found their feet.

“I’m never happy when I lose games,” he said.

“But the performance and attitude has been completely different compared to the last game against Preston. The attitude has been really good.

“We have played against one of the best, if not the best. I have watched the league and they have a lot of confidence.”

Karanka refused to blame Romanian keeper Pantilimon following his error and said: “He is coming here to help us and when we finish the season this year I will say he has had an amazing season for sure.

“He needs confidence and I will give him that.

“In a keeper position he needs to be confident and he will learn to improve for the future.

“It would be easy for me to blame him, but no chance. I prefer to look at the positive things and the team has worked really hard. We have new players and will win games for sure.”