Martin Jol hailed match-winner Darren Bent after the frontman climbed off the bench to fire Fulham to victory against Stoke.

The on-loan Aston Villa striker scored the only goal of the game late on to earn the points and ease the pressure on his under-fire boss.

"It’s great to have someone like Darren Bent," Jol said. "I always do that with players [try to nurture the best out of them]. They always have good seasons when they are with me,

"Darren Bent will have a good season. He knows what my intentions are. Sometimes he can’t start but my intentions are still to use him and get the best out of Berbatov and Darren Bent."

Fulham ended a six-month search for a home league win with their first three points since the opening day of the season.

“It was unbelievably important to get the win,” Jol added.

“I can come up with all the stories and excuses and that the players are behind each other but if you don’t get the points everyone is under a big depression.

"Relieved is probably not the word to use, you know. You need results and you need to be in a good position.

“And you need to be without pressure because any team under pressure will perform not as good as they are capable of."