Hodgson fears another scrap

Cottagers chief looking ahead to next term

Last updated: 12th May 2008

Roy Hodgson Fulham

Hodgson: Planning for next season

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Fulham manager Roy Hodgson has warned his players to curtail their survival celebrations as they have plenty of hard work ahead of them to avoid another relegation scrap next season.

The Cottagers pulled off one of the greatest escapes by winning four of their last five games, including Sunday's 1-0 victory at Portsmouth to climb clear of trouble.

Hodgson does not want another nail-biting campaign at the wrong end of the division next term and is hoping his pleayers have learned lessons from this season's struggles.

"We have to make certain in the summer that we've got a stronger platform next season," said Hodgson.

Hard work

"The last thing we need is to find ourselves fighting from the offset trying to get out of the bottom three.

"We've given ourselves a chance to build that platform but a lot of hard work is going to have to be done to make sure it is built.

"Everyone at the club deserves this success we've had in the last few weeks and now we've got a couple of days to enjoy it but soon we have to get down to the hard work of making sure we are equipped to carry it on.

"It will always be tough trying to compete with the major powers of the Premier League.

"We all know there is a big gap in class between the top teams and the middle of the table - let alone the bottom section.

"But I've always thought that if we get a decent run at it, we can establish Fulham as a decent middle-of-the-table side at least."

Fulham's hero at Portsmouth Danny Murphy was delighted the club proved the critics wrong by staying up.

Pressure

"We've been well written off. No one gave us a chance. So it's a great feeling and a wonderful achievement," admitted Murphy.

"The style of football that we've played has been excellent considering the pressure we've been under and the manager deserves credit for that.

"Another big factor was Jimmy Bullard and Brian McBride coming back later in the season (after injuries) and the manager encouraging us to play more football than we were earlier on.

"For the last few weeks, we've not played like a team in the relegation zone. We've played higher than that."