Fulham boss Roy Hodgson was in a jubilant mood after the performance of the much-maligned Bobby Zamora as the Cottagers defeated FC Basel 3-2 to progress in the Europa League.

Zamora netted twice before half-time to put his side in a commanding position at Basel's St Jakob Park and Hodgson was full of praise for the 28-year old who continued his good recent domestic form.

"Bobby Zamora carried on from where he left off in the Premier League," he said. "I thought he was very unlucky to have a first goal ruled out for offside, and he was a real thorn in the flesh of the Basel defence.

"I took him off as a precaution, he had a slight problem with his back. But he's got to be delighted with his performance.

"Bobby is one of our more popular players, he has a chant of his own and the fans seem to appreciate and like him. The one criticism is he hasn't scored enough goals but nine goals is a pretty good return for any forward.

"We were pretty good value tonight for the goals we scored and we could have scored more."