Lastuvka: More than I expected

Jan Lastuvka admits he did not expect to have made 12 appearances for Fulham.

Jan Lastuvka admits he did not expect to have made a dozen appearances for Fulham this season.

The Czech keeper is on loan at Craven Cottage from Shakhtar Donetsk and was brought in to provide the back-up to Antti Niemi.

But with Niemi struggling with injuries since the turn of the year, Lastuvka has come into the side and has been happy to feature regularly.

"Before the season I came to Fulham as a number two goalkeeper and, due to the injury problems of Antti Niemi, I have been given more chances than I expected," Lastuvka told Pravo.

"Including the cup games, I have appeared in approximately 12 fixtures, but I imagined it would be better.

"I have been conceding a lot of goals, I have missed some luck many times.

"Niemi has not been playing due to a back injury, but he has now started training and most likely will return."

Lastuvka started his third Premiership game in a row in Saturday's 2-1 defeat to Manchester United and felt Fulham were unlucky to lose to the leaders.

He added: "We did not deserve to lose. It has been our best performance for a long time and we were much better than Manchester.

"But they scored two lucky goals and that decided the game. We had more chances than them and I did not have much work.

"Manchester were favourites, but we went into the game thinking that we could beat them.

"Eventually, we could have won it, but Radzinski hit the bar. Then Ronaldo passed through maybe four players, shot and our defender Christanval unluckily deflected it into the net."