Murphy grabs winner as Fulham stay in hunt

DANNY MURPHY stressed the importance of the Europa League to Fulham last night after their 1-0 defeat of Basle at Craven Cottage.

Murphy was the match-winner, driving home Andrew Johnson’s superb pull-back for the club captain’s third goal of the season.

And the former Liverpool midfielder said afterwards: “People talk about the Premier League being the priority but our desperation to stay in the competition was there for all to see until the last minute tonight.”

He added: “Give them (Basle) some credit, they are a good side and passed it around well but in the second half we were better and caused problems.

“It’s nice to get a result. We played well against Arsenal but lost. Tonight maybe we were not so good – but that’s football.”

Murphy added: “I thought Andy Johnson’s work-rate was good tonight and I thought the back-four were great.

“Considering we haven’t played much as a team together I thought we did okay.”

Murphy struck the decisive goal in the 57th minute, driving home Andrew Johnson’s superb pull-back for the club captain’s third goal of the season.

FULHAM: Schwarzer, Kelly, Baird, Smalling, Konchesky, Dempsey, Greening, Murphy, Riise, Zamora, Andrew Johnson.

BASLE: Costanzo, Sahin, Abraham (Da Silva 69), Atan, Safari, Carlitos (Almerares 82), Gelabert (Chipperfield 86), Huggel, Stocker, Frei, Streller.

Referee: M Weiner (Germany).