Fulham have suffered three straight defeats, but John Arne Riise believes a 1-0 reversal against Man Utd saw the club moving in the right direction.
Cottagers defender takes heart from Old Trafford performance
Fulham have suffered three straight defeats, but John Arne Riise believes a 1-0 reversal against Manchester United saw the club moving in the right direction.
The Cottagers were edged out at Old Trafford on Monday to slip to 13th in the Premier League standings.
Those inside the camp are refusing to read too much into a recent wobble, though, with Riise of the opinion that a solid performance against table-topping United bodes well heading into a weekend date with Norwich.
"I think after the last two games, Aston Villa where we lost in the last minute and Swansea where we didn't play anywhere near our top level, it was a step forward," he said.
"We played compact when we needed to against Manchester United but also had some good play and really showed some character, as we always try to do, in fighting until the end so it was a good team performance."
Fulham saw a late penalty shout waved away at Old Trafford and Riise, despite being disappointed to lose, feels there are plenty of positives to be taken from the Cottagers' display.
Scare
He said: "It's always disappointing to lose but at the end of the day not many people actually expected us to get something from the game.
"But we gave United a scare, we had a few chances, we played quite good football, especially in the first half, and we had a few chances in the second half so we left there with the feeling that we played some good stuff but still gutted that we lost the game because we don't like to lose.
"It was vital we put in a strong performance against United because, as I said, the last game we played badly at home against Swansea so we really wanted to play a good game on Monday, especially ahead of the game against Norwich."
The Cottagers would appear to have done enough to steer clear of relegation trouble this season, but Riise accepts their points return should be better than it is.
"There are plenty of points still up for grabs this season," he said.
"There's so many games that we thought we should have won but we lost or conceded a last-minute goal so I think we should be on more points than we currently are because we are a good team and we can beat anybody on our day."
