Hodgson puts faith in Bullard

The goal four minutes from time sealed a fantastic fightback by Fulham and earned Hodgson his first win since taking over from the sacked Lawrie Sanchez.

Hodgson said: "Jimmy played very well and he likes to be in that attacking midfield role. I think we can get more out of him in the offensive side of the game. I think he has got goals in him and he can also set them up."

He added: "Full credit to Jimmy for taking the free-kick so well and scoring such a great goal. It was a goal that was worthy of the victory.

"We have to give Jimmy an enormous amount of credit and take our hats off to him and Brian McBride.

"Both had injuries that lesser players might have looked at and thought 'This is going to take such a long time to come back from, have I got the enthusiasm and strength of character to come back again and play at the highest level?'.

"Both of them set their stalls out to do that and both succeeded very well."

Bullard was left with a bruised and bloodied nose last week after a training ground spat with team-mate Chris Baird, but Hodgson revealed the clash had been dealt with.

"That was a regrettable incident," admitted Hodgson. "I have been very lucky in my career that I have not had many incidents of that type.

"Both players were very upset that they caused me and the rest of the team a problem. It didn't take much talking to them and Chris Baird was very quick to apologise and take all the blame for the situation. Luckily Jimmy Bullard showed the maturity to accept the apology and get on with it."