CLINT DEMPSEY has called for his boss to be named manager of the year after taking Fulham to the verge of a place in Europe.

The Whites overcame a poor Stoke City side yesterday to move up to seventh and into the last European qualifying spot, and the American winger insists Roy Hodgson is one of the unsung heroes of the Premier League.

He said: "It’s such a turnaround since avoiding relegation on the last day to pushing for Europe. So he’s (Hodgson) up there with the likes of David Moyes and Martin O’Neill."

"It’s a total turnaround and credit goes to him and our players who’ve worked hard. We’ve battled week in week out and everybody’s gotten on the same page.

"He’s quietly shown he’s up for one of the coaches of the year. We’ll see what happens if he gets it."

It was an ill wind that blew Fulham some good when they lost Bobby Zamora to injury after just 20 minutes.

Less than 10 minutes later his substitute Erik Nevland swept Fulham into the lead with a goal the scorer set up himself.

A Stoke move broke down outside the Whites penalty area and Nevland stumbled over a Greg Whelan challenge before striding on to feed Andy Johnson outside him on the right.

The £12million forward barely looked up before pulling the ball back ever so slightly behind the retreating Stoke defenders for Nevland to side-foot under the despairing dive of Thomas Sorensen.

It seemed to get worse for the Londoners when Johnson himself limped off just five minutes later.

But if anything, Fulham then wasted the best chances of the half to put daylight between themselves and a Stoke side that started brightly and then faded big time.

They never troubled Mark Schwarzer in the Fulham goal – and an incident-free second-half was testimony to the almost seamless switch up front which saw Erik Nevland and Diomansy Kamara pushing for a second.

Zamora’s back went into spasm and accounted for his withdrawal. But more worryingly for Hodgson, Andy Johnson has medial ligament damage – and how much part the £12million striker plays in the last four games will only be known after tests on Monday.