Hughes not resting on his laurels

Fulham boss Mark Hughes admits the possibility of relegation still hangs in the air despite his team moving into 10th after beating Blackpool.

The Cottagers were clinical in the 3-0 win that saw Bobby Zamora strike a brace and Dickson Etuhu tap in a third.

But Hughes said despite moving into the top half of the English Premier League, relegation was not yet out of the question with Fulham only six points clear of 18th-placed West Ham United.

“It’s not done and dusted until you get the points that you know mathematically that you can’t go down. There’s always a little bit of worry,” he said.

“In terms of what we’re producing and how we played in the last two to three months, I don’t have any concerns.”

“Quality of our performances will allow us to pick up more points between now and the end of the season and that should certainly allow us to be safe.”

“But until we actually get them on the board, you can never say never.”

Hughes was delighted with the impact Zamora made in his return to the starting line-up.

“It was important he got over the last hurdle that he had after his injury in terms of getting a few games and I couldn’t have hoped for a better impact from him,” he said.

“Straight from the off he showed quality that we missed and lacked for many games this season. It’s the perfect day for him.”

The former Manchester City boss said he wanted his team to establish themselves in the top half, meaning they had achieved the goals set for this campaign.

Meanwhile, Blackpool manager Ian Holloway said he wanted his team to play with the belief they had to get promoted to the top flight.

The Seasiders dominated possession for periods at Craven Cottage but could not find an outlet in the attacking third.

“We look like we’re carrying the world on our shoulders and we’ve got to get rid of that,” Holloway said.

“Our body language was horrible. We got promoted on the strength that we didn’t care about someone scoring, we were going to go and score ourselves.’

Holloway said he has told his team to go and watch the way they got promoted last season, hoping for a turnaround in attitude.

“I’ve asked them to do that because you need to remain totally positive,” he said.

“We can probably have five defeats and two victories and we would still stay up, I believe.”

“Thirty-nine points might keep us up and if we achieve that, it will be a fantastic achievement, better than last year.”

Blackpool have collected just five points from their last 11 outings but have their next four league games at home.