Roy Hodgson is confident Fulham can go from strength to strength
now that Andy Johnson has returned from injury to partner Bobby
Zamora.
The former Everton man made his first start since October in
Saturday's FA Cup third round win over Swindon.
Johnson looked lively alongside in-form Zamora and even won a
penalty in the second half, although his tame spot-kick was saved
by Robins' stopper David Lucas.
The 28-year-old scored 10 goals last term to help Fulham
finish seventh and earn them a place in this year's Europa League.
Groin and shoulder injuries have limited the striker to just 11
appearances this year though, and he is yet to find the target in
the Premier League.
Hodgson is sure Johnson will find his scoring boots now that
he is back in the side with Zamora, who scored his sixth goal in
seven matches last weekend.
"Bobby and AJ have a good understanding together and AJ gives
us that threat in behind," said Hodgson, who takes his side to
Stoke on Tuesday. "Andy Johnson and Bobby Zamora are our first
choice strikers. We have others, Zoltan (Gera) has done a great job
in there, of course we've got (Erik) Nevland, (Diomansy) Kamara and
(Seol) Ki-Hyeon.
"But Andy Johnson and Bobby Zamora were the two players who
were bought to play in those positions and they are the two players
who last season kicked us into seventh place."
Fulham can close the gap on eighth-placed Birmingham to two
points with a victory against Tony Pulis' side, who are without a
league win in six. Stoke arguably represent an easier challenge
than the three teams Fulham played over the festive period -
Tottenham, Chelsea and last year's champions Manchester United, who
they beat 3-0.
That does not mean that Hodgson will be taking the Potters
lightly, however.
"There's some really important Premier League points at stake
for both teams," he said. "Stoke have been very good at home
recently, they have had one or two blips but they are a tough team
to beat in the Britannia Stadium.
"They have a style of football which is well ingrained in
them, well coached and we'll have to defend at least as well as we
did against Swindon, if not better, to keep them out."
Hodgson will welcome back Damien Duff, Danny Murphy and Chris
Baird, who were all rested at the weekend. Paul Konchesky (back)
should play after coming through Saturday's game and Chris Smalling
will continue to deputise for Brede Hangeland if the Norway
defender fails to recover from a knee injury.
Stephen Kelly is likely to keep his place in the absence of
John Pantsil, who could be out for the rest of the season with a
knee injury he picked up against Chelsea.
Hodgson is not holding out hope of a quick return for the
right-back, who met with the club's medical staff at the weekend to
assess the full extent of his injury.
"We know from the scan that John has damaged his posterior
cruciate ligament so he has a serious injury," said Hodgson.
"There's no hope for me that the medical staff are going to phone
me and say it's not as bad as we thought it would be, it's only
going to be a couple of weeks.
"What they are talking about is the difference between 10 and
maybe 18 weeks so we will have to do without Pantsil for a long
time."
