Fulham head coach Slavisa Jokanovic knows his side rode their luck at times against Preston North End, but cared little as Fulham left Deepdale with a 2-1 win.
Ross McCormack scored his 23rd goal of the season with just five minutes played, but a rejuvenated Preston took control of the second half and equalised through Marnick Vermijl.
They looked the most likely winners as they continued to dominate, but Moussa Dembélé turned home the loose ball after McCormack’s free-kick hit the post to make it back-to-back wins for the Whites.
“The only important thing at this moment for us is winning points,” Jokanovic admitted. “We didn’t play a brilliant game, but we played like a team. At the end we were a little bit lucky but we had quality in front of goal with Ross and Moussa, as always.
“We have our strengths and weaknesses, like every team. Our strength is our more offensive players. We have [Cauley] Woodrow and Matt Smith too in this offensive line. I use what I think is best for us, and they give us many, many points, and many, many goals.
“[Preston] tried, they pressed, they were solid and very strong. It’s good for us because we were solid too. It’s not our best characteristic in the team, but today we were fighting all together and in the end we found the points that we needed.”
Results elsewhere went in Fulham’s favour and seven points now separate us from the drop zone, but Jokanovic is keen to secure as many wins as possible in the remaining sextet of matches.
“We are not safe,” he insisted. “There’s six games in front of us. We haven’t made many things to make us happy this season. It’s not time for us to think about holidays.
“We need to give our supporters something back as we haven’t given them so many happy afternoons in home games and away games. We’ll try and fix this problem in the six games that are in front of us.
“It’s not a moment for us to be satisfied and so happy. Okay, it’s an important result for us today, but the next final is the game against Cardiff.
“Our last game at home we played in front of fantastic support, and it’s our chance to give these people something back. It’s a chance to win a third game in a row.”