Jol hails Berbatov impact

Fulham boss Martin Jol was thrilled with the influence of new arrival Dimitar Berbatov after his brace helped them to a 3-0 win over West Brom.

Berbatov’s double, and a late Steve Sidwell goal, made sure of the three points for Jol’s men, and the Dutchman was delighted to see his Bulgarian striker make an impact in his first home game for Fulham.

“I think he was different than I have seen him before. He was all over the pitch,” Jol told Sky Sports.

“He had to play in the hole and be the sort of anchor man and he did that, so I was ever so pleased because we did not have a number 10.

“I don’t know about unplayable but when I had him at Spurs he was a top striker, when he was at Leverkusen he was a top striker and I think he did ever so well for Man United.

“He was their top scorer all the time so hopefully he can do the same here.”

West Brom manager Steve Clarke, however, had different feelings towards his own front man, Peter Odemwingie.

The Nigerian was shown a straight red card after 38 minutes for an undisciplined kick at Fulham’s Sascha Riether, and although Clarke stopped short of criticising the 31-year-old, he acknowledged his dismissal was far from ideal.

“We deservedly went a goal down and the sending-off of Peter compounded the problems we had and made for a long afternoon,” Clarke said.

“We are all human, everybody has got emotions.

“He thought he had a free-kick against him, the red mist obviously came down and he will take his punishment.

“He will get his three-game ban and the club have got a disciplinary process we will go through, and we move on. In football it happens, people get sent off.”

Odemwingie apologised for his loss of control and vowed there would be no repeat.

“Now I have time to think about the whole scenario and what really happened. I felt a good kick on my ankle, maybe from the back, and the linesman wasn’t far,” he said.

“Nobody noticed it and I felt a bit of injustice, so I lost my temper at that moment.

“If I am in a similar situation I will make sure I do not make a repeat of it.”