He said: "It shows the character of the squad because we came from the defeats.

"We know that we have to work hard, and work as much as we can, because we knew this game would be very important to get the win. It was a must-win game.

"We showed the mentality of this team.

"We know Fulham have had three defeats since they came up from the Championship, but we knew that we would come stronger too.

"We worked hard, we were patient since the beginning of the game and we worked well. We lost a bit of control at the end but we are very happy because we achieved the three points."

Neto opened his account in the 56th minute but Fulham should have claimed a point, Aboubakar Kamara shooting straight at Rui Patricio with just the goalkeeper to beat 16 minutes later.

"It was very good to score a goal, to help the team take the three points. It was important for us, so I'm very happy," Neto told the club's official site.

"It was very important, we came from the defeat against City and then West Ham, so we knew we needed to improve, to change our minds to go forward, so today we worked harder than the other days.

"We improved since the last game, so we take the victory. It was very important in a difficult game, so we are very happy."

Defeat left Fulham bottom of the Premier League having lost all four games and conceded 11 goals.

Boss Scott Parker said: "This is a team that eight weeks ago were in the Championship. This is a team that are learning and developing.

"We're working tirelessly trying to improve and analyse where mistakes are being made. We saw a vast improvement today.

"We have tried to put our identity on games but that doesn't fit the external narrative – which is goals, goals, goals against us. We'll keep improving on that."