Fulham head coach Parker has praise for Josh Onomah and spells out that work still to be done

Fulham head coach Scott Parker piled praise on Josh Onomah after he played a major role in their 2-0 win at Cardiff City tonight – putting the west London side one step closer to the Championship play-off final.

The former Tottenham midfielder produced a superb solo goal to slot the Whites ahead in the 49th minute.

And Neeskens Kebano’s excellent free-kick in stoppage time ensured they head back to Craven Cottage on Thursday as red-hot favourites to progress to Wembley.

“He has scored some big goals,” said Parker. “Josh is a young player who probably needed an arm around.

“He’s had a few coaches who recognised his talent. I had him as a baby [at Spurs] and recognised his talent.

“I’m so happy and proud of him. He could’ve folded at times but he stood up. He’ll become even better than what we’re seeing now.

“For the goal these are the positions we look to get him in – from there his skills and quality come through. I’ve spoken to the players about perseverance, character, drive and attitude – Josh probably epitomises that.

“I’m very pleased with the result. We need to stay level in this moment. There is still a lot of football to be played but we’ve put ourselves in a fantastic position in terms of the result.

“[Michael] Hector had to keep a nil on our clean sheet [with a goal-line clearance] and we had to fix things a little bit in the second half, I just felt we were having a few problems in between the lines and needed some bodies in there.

“I was looking at us and thinking we are not going to score tonight the way we are set up. We had a lot of the ball but just tweaked it a little bit to get players in between the lines – the eight, 10 and full-backs. It worked.

“That was the big message to the team [that the tie isn’t over]. There has been sole focus this season on where we need to get to and that doesn’t change.”