Niemi saves feeble Fulham

LAWRIE SANCHEZ insists he can handle the pressure mounting on Fulham, despite seeing them jeered off by supporters for the second match running.

The Fulham manager had labelled their encounter against rock-bottom Derby a “six-pointer” but Sanchez had to settle for just one, thanks largely to an inspirational goalkeeping display from recalled Antti Niemi.

He pulled off a string of fine saves to deny Derby their first away win of the season and to spare the blushes of defender Paul Konchesky, who was sent off in the closing stages of the first half for elbowing Craig Fagan.

Incredibly, the point lifted Fulham out of the bottom three and into 13th place in the table but they remain perched close to the relegation zone and the supporters are beginning to get restless.

“The fans have every right to be frustrated,” he said.

“We haven’t accumulated enough points from the goals we’ve scored. It is a strange season. Every game is pressure. A manager’s job is pressure and that is what I am paid to deal with — the pressure. We put ourselves up for it as managers and we get on with it.

“If we had lost against Derby I would not have been smiling because it would have been a really bad day.

“We are not in trouble this week because we are not in the bottom three. Eight points from 10 games is not great. But there are another seven teams at least who are the same or worse than us.

“We are a competitive team. We didn’t crumble against Derby. We could have lost 2-0 and than I would have been sat here wondering where do we go from here. But we didn’t.”

Fulham only avoided that calamitous scenario thanks to Niemi, who denied Matt Oakley, Giles Barnes and Kenny Miller.

Derby boss Billy Davies was heartened by his side’s positive performance, which deserved more than a point, but will still seek to strengthen his squad in January after spending another weekend entrenched in the bottom three.

He said: “We have less money than anyone else in this division but we need players and we need to spend money in January.

“I don’t know if there is money to spend yet, I have got to sit down with the board. I will continue to do the best with what I’ve got, but in my opinion we have got to continue the progression. It is a very difficult league and you have to spend to compete. We need players.”

FULHAM (4-4-2): Niemi 9, Baird 6, Stefanovic 6, Hughes 6, Konchesky 4, Bouazza 6, Davis 6 (Davies 69, 6), Murphy 6, Ki-Hyeon 5 (Bocanegra 46, 6), Kamara 6 (Healy 87, 5), Dempsey 6.

Subs not used: Warner, Smertin.

DERBY COUNTY (4-5-1): Bywater 7, Mears 6, Moore 6, Davis 6 (Barnes 43, 7), McEveley 6 (Griffin 71, 6), Pearson 7, Oakley 6, Leacock 6 (Howard 78, 5), Lewis 6, Fagan 6, Miller 6.

Subs not used: Jones, Earnshaw.

REFEREE: Phil Dowd (Staffordshire) 7. Got the Konchesky red card right and a rightly rejected penalty appeals from both sides.

MATCH RATING: ** A true relegation dogfight in nature as well as name.