Fulham manager Scott Parker heaped praise on his young goalkeeper Marek Rodak yesterday, but the Slovak needs to remain grounded to keep his spot in the starting side.

With a win and a clean sheet against Birmingham City last time out, Fulham went into this international break in 7th-place of the Championship, two points behind Bristol City in 6th.

It was a second consecutive clean sheet away from Craven Cottage for Parker’s side and a fifth of the season, and the young Slovakian keeper has been hailed by his manager after his recent introduction to the first-team.

He made his league debut for the club in their 3-2 win over Luton Town last month but was sent off against Middlesbrough in the next. The 22-year-old returned to the starting line-up for the Birmingham game, though, and repaid his manager with a fine performance in their third away win of the season.

Aleksandar Mitrovic’s 12th Championship goal of the season was the difference at St Andrew's, but it wasn’t without a barrage from the home side - Pep Clotet’s side had 16 shots on the day and Rodak also kept out five corners as Birmingham mounted a late siege on their lead.

Having been with Fulham since age 16, Rodak worked his way through the development squads before getting some first-team experience out on-loan. He’s spent time with Welling and Accrington Stanley in the past but his best experiences came in two successive loan-spells with Rotherham United, where he played 83 league games in the two seasons before this.

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He’ll be elated to finally be the number one at Craven Cottage. Working his way up and plying his trade lower down the football pyramid, Rodak has already been on a footballing journey and Parker’s praise will undoubtedly be a proud moment for him.

There’s still over a week before Fulham resume their Championship season against QPR, and Rodak should use this time to reflect on his impact so far and realise what he needs to do to cement that number one spot.

At a young age, he still has a lot to learn about the game and a bad run in goal could see Parker favour the more experienced Marcus Bettinelli. Rodak will surely keep his spot for the foreseeable fixtures at least, and just needs to keep doing what he’s doing to stay there.