Aina claims Fulham raring to go against Leeds

BY KAI BENNETT

Ola Aina is confident Fulham have suffered no drop in belief ahead of Friday night’s home game against Leeds United.

The west London side’s form has lifted them to within a win of climbing out of the Premier League bottom three.

But Fulham were punished for defensive mistakes as Manchester City ran out 3-0 victors last weekend at Craven Cottage – conceding all of the goals in an error-strewn second period.

Fulham can still leapfrog Newcastle United ahead of their game against Brighton on Saturday afternoon.

Fulham lost the reverse fixture 4-3 at Elland Road in September, before manager Scott Parker went on to overhaul nearly his entire starting line-up.

Leeds have not won at Craven Cottage in their last five attempts, a run that stretches back to 2015. Marcelo Bielsa’s side have only managed one victory in their last seven league matches and drew 0-0 with Chelsea on the weekend.

Right-back Aina said: “We’re raring to go. The position we’re in, we have to just take it game by game.

“We have to move on and look forward to the next one, because ultimately there’s a goal that we need to achieve at the end of the season, so we can’t dwell on bad results.

“We haven’t had mistakes like that [against Manchester City] for a long time, since the beginning of the season.

“We gave them a tough first half. We shut off their options, and we created a few openings of our own.”

Scott Parker believe his sidels loss to City will give his team extra motivation.

“Never will we let a bad result or bad performance hinder us or put us down, in fact it will be the fuel for us to get better and improve as a team and individuals.

“We understand the quality Leeds have.”

PICTURE: KEITH GILLARD