RAUL Jimenez hopes today’s goal in Fulham’s 3-1 defeat at Aston Villa will be the one that starts a scoring spree.
The Mexican had already hit the post in the second-half before grabbing a 70th minute consolation for the Whites, who were trailing 3-0 following Antonee Robinson’s own goal and further efforts from John McGinn and Oli Watkins.
Defeat puts the Cottagers 16th in the Premier League but still six points above the relegation zone, with Jimenez at least finally off the mark since his summer switch from Wolves, their next opponents after the international break.
He told Fulham TV: “Of course it is always nice to score.
“It was my first goal in the Premier League in a long time and my first goal here with Fulham.
“I’m really happy about that but obviously the result is not what we wanted. I want to keep doing this, keep scoring to help the team to get better.
“This needs to be the goal that opens the bottle. Wolves is going to be a special game for me in that next game and I want to do my best.”
Villa went into the game in search of a 13th straight home league victory, with Robinson’s unfortunate 27th minute conversion into his own net setting them on the way.
Jimenez acknowledged a trip to Villa Park is a tricky assignment for any club these days, but added Fulham must be on their top game from the kick-off in future.
“It is difficult to come to this stadium,” the forward said.
“They are playing really well but we have to start playing our football from the first minute, not wait for them to score a goal for us to react.
“We need to keep improving for us to get better.
“I think that we need to react. We need to start performing our game from the first minute.
“It happened against Brighton, it happened against other teams, so we need to start working from the first minute.”
Cottagers boss Marco Silva accepted Villa deserved their victory and described the trip to the West Midlands as “frustrating” for his side, who are now without a win in four league games.
But the manager did praise Jimenez for breaking his duck and backed the striker to get more goals once the domestic season resumes.
Silva said: “For sure it’s going to be not so heavy the next time that he’s going to be on the pitch.
“It’s a tough one to go such a long time without scoring in the Premier League.
“Unfortunately for us, it didn’t give the chance for us to add points with his goal.
“But I’m sure if he keeps working like he’s doing, if he keeps doing his best – and we keep delivering for him as well – in the future he’s going to score goals that can count towards those points for us.”
