Sunday's 4-1 home hammering by Manchester City leaves the Cottagers clinging to safety only thanks to a superior goal difference over Wigan. As Christmas approaches, with all the negative statistics that come with it for the teams at the bottom, Gera knows improvement needs to come swiftly. Yet such is the nature of this bizarre season that a couple of wins can push Mark Hughes' men up towards the European places. And that is what Gera has his eyes on, not the scrap further down. "I am sure we will not panic," said the 31-year-old. "If we do that it is not good for the team. "We need to stick together. The league is so tight at the moment, we still have time to pick points up and get out of this zone. "I am confident. We know we can do much better and we will do much better in the next two games." It does seem bizarre that Fulham should be looking anxiously over their shoulders even though they have only lost four matches, the same number as Chelsea and Arsenal, who remain in the top three. Fulham's problem is their large percentage of drawn games, caused by a paltry tally of just 14 goals in as many Premier League games. Bobby Zamora's injury is clearly a major factor in the downturn from last season, although Gera does not feel it tells the whole story. "I don't know why we have struggled so badly," he admitted. "It is difficult to understand because we have chances. We are creating them but have not scored enough. "We need to work on that, then hopefully, this bad luck will turn round." In their present situation, Fulham certainly cannot afford to be conceding early goals, as they did yesterday, although they do realise they will not meet sides as effective as City were every week. Nevertheless, it is fairly obvious no-one can be taken for granted this season, with next weekend's opponents, Birmingham, capable of climbing out of the relegation zone themselves by beating Chelsea on Saturday. "I don't know why we started so flat," said Gera. "The preparation has been exactly the same this season but sometimes it happens. "We need to forget this game and do better in the next one, which is going to be very important. "We must pick up some points to get out of the relegation zone."
