LONDON: Ruben Amorim welcomed a rare clean sheet in Manchester United´s 1-0 win at Fulham on Sunday but did not gloss over his side´s need to improve despite a vital three points.

Lisandro Martinez´s deflected winner offered some respite to Amorim, who has won just four of his 12 Premier League games in charge. United climb to 12th in the table, now a comfortable 13 points above the bottom three.

But their performance was in keeping with many others under two different managers this season, against sides with a fraction of their budget. There was little to get United co-owner Jim Ratcliffe excited as he watched on in west London, but victory does dispel any remaining notion that United could be dragged into a relegation battle.

“Not a great game and you can feel it, no great chances,” said Amorim “We tried to control the game, tried to play our game but we need to improve a lot with the ball.

“It´s really important (to keep a clean sheet) because clearly you are closer to wining games and getting confidence. We didn´t suffer too much today and that´s a good sign. It´s not just the clean sheet, it´s the way we defended.” Fulham made the brighter start but were also guilty of a lack of penetration in a pedestrian 90 minutes.