Jol wants Pogrebnyak to commit to Cottage

Fulham manager Martin Jol wants Pavel Pogrebnyak to repay the faith he showed in the Russian forward by committing his future to the club.

The Russian was floundering at Stuttgart, with one goal in 18 games, before Jol took a gamble and signed the 28-year-old in January on a deal until the end of the season — a gamble paying big dividends for Jol.

“I went to Germany years ago to try to sign him but he went to Stuttgart. He didn’t have the best of times there but they have five strikers and if you are scoring then it’s fine but if you are not then you are out the next game and he knows that he will play for us,” Jol said about his new man.

“We are talking to four or five players of our best players that we want to keep and he is one of them,’’ he added.

“I’m happy that we made the decision because there are so many strikers on the market and you have to get them when they are not at their peak price.”

Terry Connor suffered the ignominy of watching his side lose by five and he admitted it comes with the territory when you are a struggling club.

“We are always going to get a bloody nose now and again. We are not the best team in the league and we will get beat now and again. For me it’s about how we bounce back and when we are back in next week we will be positive and looking forward and looking to win on Saturday.”

The next chance Wolves have to drag themselves away from the relegation mire is the home tie against Blackburn and Connor knows exactly what he is up against.

“We do get beat and we work at that end of the table, we know that, but we’ve done it for two years and we stick together and we want to do it for the third year running.”