Tim Ream called Fulham's performance in their 3-1 victory over Norwich "gritty" and believes it was something the side had been lacking recently.
A goal from Stefan Johansen set them on their way, before Chris Martin was sent off, but Tom Cairney scored a penalty immediately after the break to make it two.
Cameron Jerome got one back but Floyd Ayite secured the win in the 90th minute - something that wouldn't have been possible without Ream and the rest of the back four's defensive display.
The American was outstanding all game and put in one of his best performances of the season, but he believes that going down to ten men meant the side had to rally and make themselves hard to break down.
He said: "I’d call it gritty, it was a good character performance for the team and its something that has been lacking lately.
"Going down to ten men just before half time and then getting the pen just after and then really having to dig in and defend as an entire team was something that we discussed at half time and it was a gritty, hard fought three points "and it was nice to get the third goal at the 90th minute there.
"He (Jokanovic) told us to calm down, I think guys were a little amped up trying to figure out whether it was or wasn’t.
"Everyone was shouting out instructions trying to keep each other focused and he came in and said calm down, we're going to have to do things a little differently in the second half and it was nice to get the decision our way just after half time and then from there it was keeping our shape and preventing them from having too many clear cut chances.
"Whenever you can get a goal just after half time, especially to put us up 2-0, it definitely helped settle everyone down and gave us a good platform to stand on.
"I felt for the most part we did very well being down to ten and we made it hard to break us down and hard to beat."
