Fulham boss Roy Hodgson is delighted with the progress of Chris Smalling this season.

"He is maturing all the time," Hodgson said of the 19-year-old.

"I thought his performance against CSKA Sofia was very good. His performance against Manchester City was even more worthy of praise because he was playing against (Carlos) Tevez and (Craig) Bellamy and again he played very well against a very good Basle team.

"We have the centre-half pairing of Hangeland and Hughes but it was very nice to see how we have admirable back up in Chris Baird and Chris Smalling, both of whom had very good games (against Basle)."