Gentleman Roy airs his views post match.
After the 1-0 victory over Basel in our Europa League Group and as the crowd drifted away towards Hammersmith, Putney Bridge and into the streets of Fulham, Roy Hodgson was left to entertain the journalists in his post match interview.
Firstly, Roy spoke about what it is like facing teams you know very little about, commenting,
“With these games you are delving into the unknown but we were prepared for a tough match.”
“They proved to be very strong, with a lot of pace and ability. It made for an exciting tie and I`m really pleased we came out on top.”
He was also quick to remind everyone though that Basel were no mugs having already taken three points from their opening Europa League Group fixture last time out, exclaiming,
“Basel were good – any team that scores two goals against Roma are going to be that and I knew we were facing a difficult task.”
“It was a tight game and could have gone either way, but luckily it went our way.”
Before offering praise to the hero of the night, his captain, Danny Murphy, who copped for the following accolades,
“I thought Danny came into his own and he`s getting back to the form he showed in the latter stages of last season and hopefully this goal will help add to that.”
“He got better as the game went on, I`m pleased a goal like that won us the match.”
But Roy, as we all were, was acutely aware of the fact that Basel pressed hard for an equaliser late on and he had his keeper to thank for ensuring the three points were ours, explaining,
“Schwarzer made a good save at the end and also dealt well with a couple of crosses.”
Although with a glint in his eye he couldn`t help but mention those two decisions in the penalty area that didn`t go in our favour, commenting,
“But we had a stonewall penalty in the first half and in the second half the crowd behind the goal thought there could have been another.”
“That could have made our task easier.”
But with the three European points in the bag, Roy was quick to take a look ahead commenting about our poor current league form,
“We played well against Arsenal, possibly better than tonight.”
“But we have five or six players to come back and they will return rested.”
Let`s all hope that yesterday was the start of something and that we`ll be able to keep the momentum going at Upton park this coming Sunday!
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