Scott Parker is 'confident' goals will come fur Fulham after drab draw

Scott Parker buoyed by Fulham’s performance in goalless draw with Crystal Palace and is ‘confident’ goals will come after his struggling side extended their unbeaten run to five games at Selhurst Park

• Fulham dominated possession against Crystal Palace but could only draw 0-0 
• They have gone five unbeaten in the Premier League but are struggling for goals
• Scott Parker believes his side can become more clinical and take their chances

Scott Parker is confident the goals will come for Fulham after they extended their unbeaten run in the Premier League to five games with a 0-0 draw at Crystal Palace.

It moved the Whites to within three points of Newcastle and Brighton but the visitors were left to reflect on what might have been in south London.

Third-from-bottom Fulham dominated possession and created the better chances at Selhurst Park and yet have scored only four goals in their last six matches.

Fulham boss Scott Parker backed his side to kill off games and make the most of their chances

Parker insisted: ‘I see these players every day and I am confident in what I see. I see the attacking players coming in, trying to improve and get better.

‘Of course in match situations and certainly games, the one thing you can aim at us is we have not managed at certain times to kill games off but it is a young team.

‘A lot of these players are around the Premier League for the first time and what I constantly want from my group of players is a real honesty that we keep trying to improve and get better.

‘Life tells me, and my experiences tell me, if you keep trying to do that, things change. We have unbelievable quality here, I see it and it is now trying to get that to click in the key moments.’

Parker talked up the potential to improve for his young attackers, including Josh Maja (right)

On-loan Bordeaux frontman Maja had several chances in the 0-0 draw against Crystal Palace

Josh Maja almost broke the deadlock in the 68th minute but his close-range header was brilliantly tipped wide by Palace goalkeeper Vicente Guaita.

The majority of Fulham’s opportunities went to Joachim Andersen while the hosts failed to have a single shot on target. 

Without top goalscorer and chief creator Wilfried Zaha, the Eagles struggled to create chances and another poor attacking showing led to #RoyOut trending on Twitter.

Palace manager Roy Hodgson, after his 150th match in charge of the club, said: ‘Our ambition was to attack and create lots of goal chances but unfortunately there are two teams on the field.

Centre half Joachim Andersen (left) saw his close-range shot brilliantly blocked by Gary Cahill

‘They were very good, Fulham, at closing down and restricting our time and space and making certain the attacking moves and attacking options we were hoping to launch, weren’t available to us.

‘As a result, you have to play the games that’s out there and before the game we certainly didn’t set out to involve ourselves in a game where the opposition had as much of the ball as they did and were asking questions of us that they did.

‘We set out to make it a very even game, but credit to Fulham, it didn’t happen and when it wasn’t happening, we had to make certain the weapons we had at our disposal were also brought to bear.

‘The major weapon we had today was the defensive shape and defensive organisation and desire of the players to make certain if we weren’t going to win the game, we weren’t going to lose it.’

Eagles boss Roy Hodgson expressed frustration that his side have to play again on Wednesday

Hodgson also aired his annoyance at Palace being forced to play again on Wednesday when Manchester United make the trip to Selhurst Park.

The clash was originally scheduled for March 21 but has been moved forward because the Red Devils are in FA Cup action.

‘The Manchester United game thrust upon us is something we are pretty unhappy about, especially in this current state of affairs when we do have so many of our first-team players unavailable,’ Hodgson bemoaned.

‘It is pretty tough to play Man United now and then get three weeks off when we don’t need three weeks off. I would have much preferred if this game had stayed where it was.’

Palace, who are without eight first-teamers including Zaha, remain 13th in the table.

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