Jol: Job not done yet

Martin Jol insists the job is not done yet despite watching his side take a 3-0 over NSI Runavik in the first leg of their Europa League qualifier.

Goals from Damien Duff, Danny Murphy and Andrew Johnson on Thursday gave the English Premier League side a comfortable buffer ahead of the second leg in the Faroe Island next week.

It was the perfect way to start Jol’s tenure at Craven Cottage after succeeding Mark Hughes in the top job in June, but he said there was still work to be done.

“If I say (it is job done), you will tell everyone I said the job was done so I will say it’s a good score,” Jol said.

“We started off brightly the first five minutes and then it was difficult to find the spare man up front.”

“The second half was better. If there was no possibility to play it up to Andy (Johnson) or Bobby (Zamora) you have to play down the flanks and the second half was better.”

“That is the only disappointing thing, that we only scored three goals. I’ll forgive them because they were a bit tired because we had a good week and we trained hard. They worked hard.”

Many were surprised to see Jol send out a near-full strength line up against the minnows, bu the Dutchman said it was important to approach the match in the right way.

“Yes (it is early) but on the other hand all the other teams will play their first friendly game soon,” he said.

“You have to approach it as a serious game, but if you play a friendly game you do that after six or seven days and that’s exactly what we did today so I don’t think it has a big difference.”

He also praised his strike pairing of Johnson and Zamora, who he believes can become a dangerous combination in the season ahead.

“I think they are both terrific players and it’s something we’ve tried to work upon, working them together as a pair,” Jol said. “One the target man and one stretching the defence.”

“And if we got a bit more space, because there wasn’t a lot of space, you will see that they can play together.”