Parker and Hodgson give their verdicts on Eagles v Fulham stalemate

Scott Parker believes his side can beat Spurs on Thursday and can upset the odds against Liverpool and Man City too in their upcoming fixtures.

Fulham had to settle for a point from the 0-0 draw with Crystal Palace on Sunday lunchtime, when they could have done with a win, given the difficulty they face of collecting any points from their next three games against elite clubs.

But it is now just one defeat in eight and the Whites boss remains defiant about his team’s chances of beating the drop. They remain three points from safety, but he convinced that they will keep picking up points if they carry on playing as well as they are now, even against the top sides.

“On the scale of the opportunities we created, we fully deserved to win the game,” Parker said of the derby draw with Palace.

“We fell short in that, but defensively we were very good. You're playing a team in Crystal Palace who are very organised and sit off play a lot. You've got to jab and probe your way in at times.

“To start we didn't do that well enough and second half we changed it positionally and created enough chances to win the game.

“It wasn’t meant to be, and we’re disappointed of course because we wanted to come here and win the game. But it’s a clean sheet and if you perform the way we did today, law of averages, you win it more than you lose or draw.

“I see points from the next game. I believe in this team, the team believe as well. I believe we can beat Spurs, I believe we can go into Thursday's game and cause them problems and go into it trying to win the game.

“Every game in this division is tough so of course you understand fixtures coming along are tougher than others but we've shown we can compete against any team in this division so I hope that's not going to be any different in the fixtures coming up.”

Eagles boss Roy Hodgson admitted his team did not fire on all cylinders in a disappointing game and will be desperate to have Wilfried Zaha back to face former club Manchester United on Wednesday.

The Ivory Coast forward has missed the past three games with a muscle injury but recently returned to first-team training.

"We have a lot of players to come back into the team," said Hodgson, who was also without James McArthur, Mamadou Sakho, Jeffrey Schlupp, James Tomkins and Nathaniel Clyne.

"I know we have a lot more strings to our bow than we have perhaps been able to show in the last few games. We have our own stars that will be back in the team and can ask a lot of questions.

"I'm very satisfied, though. Fulham are playing very well and are a good team. We knew we would be under pressure for large parts of the game.

"We are realists. I still think we can do more with the ball sometimes but that's dependent on the opposition as well. They don't give you a lot of time on the ball but the way we dug in is very commendable. I can't praise the players enough for the work-rate."