Fulham’s Dempsey happy to play as back-up striker

Fulham midfielder Clint Dempsey says he does not mind playing as a back-up striker whilst the club deals with injuries.

The USA international has been asked to play in a more advanced forward role by Cottagers boss Roy Hodgson recently and says he doesn’t mind doing it at all.

"Because of injury, andpeople getting sick, I have had to step in and I don't have a problem doing that," said the former New England Revolution player. "I enjoy it. I just want to be on the field, whether that's out wide or up top.”

Despite going down to Birmingham City 1-0 on the weekend, Dempsey was content with how he played but is keen to hit the back of the net when they host Blackburn Rovers in a midweek fixture on Wednesday night.

"I was happy with my performance at Birmingham. The only thing I could have asked for is a goal, which would have been the icing on the cake. Maybe that will come tonight.

"Blackburn are very physical, but so are we. We have some boys who can get stuck in. We aren't worried about that, we can handle ourselves. We are just looking forward to the challenge.”

Fulham are currently sitting in 10th place on the Premier League table and Dempsey said the goals was to emulate or better their performance of last season.

"The aim is get a Europa Cup place again. We finished seventh last year and we'll go for that again,” he added.

“The main thing is not to be dragged into a relegation battle and not drop down to the Championship. We are confident we are good enough to finish in the top half."