Roy Hodgson believes Fulham
deserved to beat London rivals Tottenham in the scoreless clash at Craven Cottage
on Boxing Day.
The Cottagers failed to bury a string of chances with Spurs
stopper Heurelho Gomes denying Clint Dempsey, Bobby Zamora, Damien
Duff and Zoltan Gera ensuring a blank afternoon.
"In terms of clear-cut goal chances, I'd say we deserved to win
that," said Hodgson. "I thought our first-half performance was
really good and we were clearly better.
"Maybe with any luck we would have entered half-time in
front.
"Their goalkeeper made two or three very good saves and we
scuffed one or two chances.
"The game evened out a lot more in the opening 30 minutes of the
second half but we were back in the last 15 minutes.
"Once again Gomes made a great save, as did Mark Schwarzer for
us.
"You'd have to say of the two goalkeepers that Gomes was a lot
busier than Schwarzer.
"Perhaps we were unlucky not to win but it was a good game
between two good teams."
Spurs chief Harry Redknapp
was delighted with Gomes and claimed the Brazilian is living up to
the reputation he had established before making a poor start to
life at White Hart Lane.
"Gomes did well. Fulham were
dangerous when they got it forward to Zamora early and Gomes made a
couple of good saves," said Redknapp.
"But so did Schwarzer - Crouch's shot in the second half was in
all the way. I thought it was a fair point.
"Gomes has improved. He was short of confidence when I first
came here last year but he's back to what everyone said he was
before I came to the club.
"People told me in Holland what a great keeper he was and he's
showing it. That's three clean sheets on the spin and that's
important."
Redknapp insisted there was no shame in drawing with
Fulham.
"Fulham beat
Manchester United 3-0 last
weekend so it's a tough place to come. I've got no problems leaving
here with a point," he said.