Chris Coleman challenged his Fulham players to keep confounding the critics by retaining their place in the Premiership's top four.
The Cottagers, who came from behind to beat Bolton 2-1 at Loftus Road, are clinging to the coat-tails of Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United.
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Fulham manager
Chris Coleman |
Coleman's men were roundly written off as relegation fodder before the season kicked off - but four months and 15 games later, they are 11 points behind table-topping Chelsea and three points clear of Charlton in fifth.
Coleman said: "The critics are ignoring us now and pretending we're not even there. But we're halfway through the season in another four games so we must be doing something right.
"We've been consistent, although not absolutely brilliant in any games.
"It's only the last three games in which we're unbeaten but teams have to have their players at 100 per cent to beat us.
"Now we've got to keep picking up as many points as we can."
Fulham hit the net twice in two minutes to wipe out Wanderers' 1-0 lead given to the visitors by Kevin Davies.
Sean Davis sparked the comeback, sweeping home from Barry Hayles' pass and Facundo Sava completed the comeback a minute after Davis' effort, dispatching a loose ball into the bottom corner.
"We know we were fortunate," Coleman said. "We were poor for 75 minutes and Bolton were 1-0 up and deserved to be.
"But we had a lot of strong characters out there, kept fighting and scrapping and got our reward."
Louis Saha was substituted early in the second half with a hip injury - sustained in a collision with Ivan Campo - but is expected at training next week.
Coleman added: "He's got a bit of bruising but he'll be okay."
Bolton boss Sam Allardyce was devastated by the 2-1 defeat at Fulham.
The visitors had dominated the entire match up until the 75th minute and led through Kevin Davies' goal.
But Sean Davis equalised and a minute later Facunda Sava netted again to end Bolton's six-match unbeaten streak.
"It's absolutely sickening," said Allardyce. "We've no excuses whatsoever for throwing this away and the players should be as gutted as I am.
"We can't blame the referee or anyone. We only have ourselves to blame for not completely finishing off Fulham when we had the opportunity.
"We paid a heavy, heavy price for not doing that. We failed to make sure we got three points and have been left with absolutely nothing.
"In the space of two minutes, we didn't only concede the equaliser but also the goal which defeated us after a fantastic run of results. We should have continued that.
"We had six clear-cut chances and we only beat the keeper once. And our defenders switched off because it had become so easy for them. But you can't do that in the Premiership.
"I'm so disappointed our players couldn't take the three points we deserved."