BEAM ME UP SAYS SCOTTY
Fulham boss tells players to have a laser focus and keep their miracle alive
Craven Cottage 8pm
TONY BANKS
SCOTT PARKER hopes fortune favours the brave when Fulham host Burnley tonight.
Defeat against the Clarets would mean a swift drop back into the Championship after just one season.
But Parker insists his men can win their last four games and complete a miracle escape similar to the one Roy Hodgson achieved with the club in 2008, when Danny Murphy’s header in a 1-0 win at Portsmouth saved them on the final day
To do that though, the Cottagers boss knows his players need to show courage.
“They are going to need to be brave,” he said. “But not just brave - players in those key moments who can be clinical.
“Players that can live off that one moment, make sure that moment is executed.
“When you are a Fulham player, that is the way this league is.
“As a centre-forward you maybe get two, three chances. You are living off that moment - and it needs to be, ‘Bang’. It needs to be the difference.
“At times his year we’ve fallen short on that, but this is what we’re going to need. Bravery and a cool head, with a laser focus that can execute.”
If Fulham do go down Parker feels Burnley, who kept manager Sean Dyche and bounced straight back after relegation in 2015, are a good example of how a club should handle the drop.
He said: “Burnley can definitely be an example for us, as can Norwich – clubs that have been very stable and understood the goal.
“If the aim is always a trophy, always a promotion, and you lose sight of what gets you there, then sustained success is never possible, because your fix is so dramatic.
“The spikes of your highs and
FULHAM: Areola, Aina, Andersen, Adarabioyo, Robinson, DercordovaReid, Anguissa, Lemina, LoftusCheek, Lookman, Mitrovic BURNLEY: Pope, Lowton, Tarkowski, Mee, Taylor, Brownhill, Westwood, Cork, McNeil, Barnes, Wood REFEREE: David Coote lows are so big. You have no longer term view. That’s going to have to be the case whether we’re in this league or not.”
Asked if he could do it again, and lead Fulham out of the Championship as he did two years ago, Parker added: “They are conversations that need to take place at the end of the season. I have one focus now we need to beat Burnley.
“If failure happens then we will sit around the table and discuss where we can improve, what we need to do, are we willing to do it, are we not.”