We return to Premier League action on Sunday when we play Fulham. We’ve done pretty well against Fulham in the Premier League having only lost to them twice. Of course one of those was the season before last which doomed us to relegation. Over all we have won 4 of the 11 matches with 5 draws.

Roy Hodgson has done a terrific job at Fulham. While we had to re-group in the Championship, he was able to strengthen Fulham and they had a good season last year and of course they are playing in the Europa Cup this season and had a very good result on Thursday.

Team news as of now, is that the squad that Alex McLeish takes to Craven Cottage is likely to be the same as the one he took to Derby in the FA Cup. The main question is will he stick to Gardner and Fahey in midfield who probably didn’t have as good a performance as they could have done, or will he restore Larsson and McFadden.

Fulham should be near enough the same as Thursday, but Shorey is likely to come back into the starting eleven at the expense of Blues old boy Kelly.

So what of the game?

Well Fulham can certainly play football. I thought they were the better side earlier in the season, certainly in the first half. Our strength has been our defence, we have one of the meanest defences in the league. Our problem of course is scoring and lots of people in the press have pointed that out. However, did you know that Fulham have scored less than us? The other thing is that in the last 4 games we have scored goals at the end of games. This is a great show of character and a willingness of not to give up.

So I don’t expect too many goals, maybe one a piece. Fulham would jump above up if they win, we would hit the target of 40 points if we win. I believe that both teams will have to wait for both of those, as I’m going for a 1-1 draw.

Kev