Mark Hughes pleased Fulham showed no apprehension in Sunderland victory

EPL : Steed Malbranque – Philippe Senderos, Sunderland v Fulham

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Fulham boss Mark Hughes is pleased his side showed no apprehension in their second away win of the season after a 3-0 victory over Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

A first-half goal from on-loan Chelsea midfielder, Gael Kakuta, his first for the club since joining from Stamford Bridge, and a brace from Simon Davies after the break were enough to give Fulham’s travelling fans a rare victory to savour.

Speaking after the match, Hughes was understandably pleased that his team had managed to secure an away win, although he admitted that their first-half display was not at an acceptable standard.

“We improved vastly in the second half and very comfortably saw the game out,” conceded Hughes.

“Obviously the second goal was key from our point of view, once we were 2-0 to the good I never felt we were going to lose the game.

“It was about getting the job done today and obviously we haven’t had that many wins on the road and sometimes you can be a little bit apprehensive and try and protect what you’ve got, sometimes that can lead to a problem but we didn’t demonstrate an apprehension in our second half performance and in the end we won comfortably.

“A lot of managers have seemed to struggle to get away wins at Fulham Football Club but we’ve been close on numerous occasions this year and disappointed ourselves because we’ve had good performance and we haven’t been able to pick up maximum points.

“That wasn’t the case today, we’ve come through a difficult week in terms of fixtures on paper, Wolves away and Sunderland today and in between that we had Bolton at home which we needed to make sure we got a positive result and we’ve come through a period and got maximum points and in good knick.

“So we’re delighted at where we find ourselves we’ve got a number games to finish the season and we intend to win every one of them.”

The seven points gained in the last week has kept Fulham in ninth place in the Premier League and Hughes is determined that the club maintain their position in the top 10.

He added: “Well we’ll keep going, we’ve got difficult games coming up.

“I mean we’ve got two home games against Liverpool and Arsenal which will be a big test for us and Birmingham away who I don’t think are safe as we speak so it’s not going to be easy but we’ll do our best it’s important for the club and the team that we finish in the top 10.

“Certainly that’s an achievement in itself because I don’t Fulham have achieved a top-10 finish in the Premier League on too many occasions in the stretch that we have been in the Premier League so if we can do that that bodes well for next season and we can use that and build on that and help the team.”

Fulham have been unlucky with an injury to Bobby Zamora which saw him most of the season, but his re-emergence when they were in danger of being caught in a battle against relegation has seen them push up the table.

But Hughes is grateful that his squad has remained relatively injury-free until now, as his side might have been unable to cope.

“It was difficult to prepare for this game prior to kick off we lost Clint Dempsey yesterday with hamstring trouble and through the night we had Matty Briggs and Brede Hangeland going down with a virus and they had to go back on the train and obviously Moussa Dembele had to have a fitness test prior to the game, if he had failed that we wouldn’t have had the required amount of people on the bench.

“If we had had that problem earlier in the season we would not have the quality to compensate but I think it shows the depth of the squad and the ability of that depth.”