Hodgson admits cup relief

Hodgson admits cup relief

Fulham manager Roy Hodgson admitted he was relieved to see off the challenge of Leicester City and book a place in the third round of the Carling Cup.

Danny Murphy and Jimmy Bullard scored twice in the last seven minutes to secure a 3-2 success and save the Cottagers from a humiliating exit against League One opposition.

Zoltan Gera had opened the scoring for the Premier League side, but they trailed 2-1 heading into the closing stages after strikes from Paul Dickov and Andy King.

"We were playing a very good team with their tails up and they gave us an awful lot of problems," admitted Hodgson.

"Thank goodness we re-found our tempo in the last 20 minutes and got through with two wonderful strikes.

"We were not guilty of complacency. It was just that our game went to pieces with those two goals Leicester scored, but we have come out of it with a couple of positives.

"One is that we were able to find our game again and two is that we learned a lot of lessons without paying the full price."