Roy Hodgson reckons there is still plenty of room for improvement despite seeing his side open their Premier League campaign with a win on Saturday.

The Cottagers triumphed 1-0 at Portsmouth thanks to Bobby Zamora’s unwitting deflection of Clint Dempsey’s strike.

But Hodgson was not totally convinced by the fare put before him.

He said: “I thought we gave the ball away a bit too much but that is probably due to the pressure of opening day.

“Had we been a bit calmer we would probably have caused them far more problems.

“There is no doubt it was a very fortuitous goal - we were a bit lucky with it but there was some nice football in the build-up.

“To be perfectly honest if we are winning games I do not really care how they come, and it would be churlish of me to start complaining after three points in the first game of the season.”

Fulham will now look ahead to their Europa League play-off games with Russian side Amkar Perm, the first leg at Craven Cottage on Thursday night.

By then the Londoners hope to have tied up a deal for Newcastle’s Damien Duff, and Hodgson admits he has to strengthen if his side are to have any chance of success this season.

He added: “We can say for certain that if we go far in the competition we will be very stretched.

“But we obviously want to make it as it would be a fantastic achievement for this club.

“I am not looking for players to replace players, just provide more competition for places.

“Bringing in Damien Duff would be a great boost, as I have worked with him before and he has a lot of quality.”

Fulham’s next three matches: Aug 20 Amkar Perm (h), 23 Chelsea (h), 27 Amkar Perm (a)