In a dramatic closing day of the regular Championship season, Fulham Head Coach Scott Parker was happy to have brought the race for automatic promotion to the final possible moment.
“I think we were realistic in the way we framed it. We knew what we had to do tonight and, to bring the season to the last day was a massive positive for us.
“We took it to the wire but it’s not happened for us. We knew that it was well out of our hands tonight, and understood that the likelihood was that we’d be going through the Play-Offs.”
Parker’s side are in red-hot form at the right moment, giving them confidence of a strong showing going into next week’s Play-Off games
“We lost two games coming out of lockdown and since then we’ve been in very good form, the team have done remarkably well – that’s seven unbeaten now.
“Of course, when you are so close there is that element of ‘can we do it?’, but at the same time you’re relying on other teams to slip up
“Now we move on. We go into the Play-Offs now in form and with momentum.”
The result means Wigan are relegated from the Championship following a 12-point deduction. For Parker, this is a cruel thing to be done bearing in mind the Lactic’s formidable 2020 form.
“I have sympathy for Paul (Cook) and Wigan and the job he’s done because it’s been a fantastic job. To think you have a 12-point deduction and you still need to win the game tonight to stay in the division, I have nothing but sympathy for him.
“We knew the task ahead of us. There was a team here fighting for their lives, had to win the game, had nothing to lose and was going to come out of the blocks firing, and the same could be said about us.
“It was an end-to-end game in the end and both teams knew that they needed to try and win the game. For us, to give us a chance and hope that West Brom slip up, but at the same time Wigan needed to win as well. It becomes a bit of a basketball match at the end -very entertaining. But obviously there is a sympathy for Paul and Wigan certainly.
With all fixtures being played simultaneously tonight, it must’ve been hard for Parker not to keep an eye on how teams around Fulham were doing
When asked if he was checking the scores through the game, Parker said: “Not really. Late on there was an element of it but we went into this game just focused on ourselves".
“Like I said, we knew the task ahead and we were relying on a lot of teams to slip up. Our number one focus was to win the game, worry about ourselves and put ourselves in a position where if we win the game we can see happens, that was our sole focus.
“Of course, the later on the game goes on you hear some feedback from the other grounds. It wasn’t meant to be for us but that the way it is. We’ll be focused and we’ll push now for what is a tough game against Cardiff and we’ll go from there.”