Fulham did their chances of claiming one of the two automatic promotion spots no harm at all in midweek when they registered a 1-0 home win against Swansea City which has helped The Cottagers up into 3rd place and 5 points behind 2nd placed Leeds United.
Saturday’s hosts have lost just once out of their last 9 matches overall in the Championship with Scott Parker’s side seemingly hitting form at the right moment, but they need to maintain this momentum against Preston this weekend if they’re to keep the pressure on Leeds United.
Five wins out of these last 9 matches will definitely help Fulham with their push for automatic promotion as too their recent winning momentum at Craven Cottage where the hosts have won 3 of their last 4 matches.
Recent victories over Middlesbrough, Huddersfield Town and Swansea City should give Parker’s side belief that they can grab the all-important three points in this upcoming clash, and although they lost the last meeting against Preston 2-1 away from home, The Cottagers have won 4 of the last 6 meetings against Saturday’s visitors.
Preston North End’s soft underbelly on the road came to the fore once again on Tuesday night when they were handed a 2-0 defeat away at The Hawthorns against Championship league leaders, West Brom, which became Preston’s seventh defeat on their travels this season.
Five wins out of their last 8 matches has helped maintain Preston’s bid for a top six finish in the second tier but although 3 of these 5 wins were on the road at Barnsley, Wigan Athletic and Stoke City, all three of these teams currently sit in the bottom five of the Championship.
Preston’s results on the road against top six opposition have resulted in draws with Nottingham Forest and Leeds United along with defeat at West Brom, while the visitors possess the worst away record of all the teams currently in the play-off pack.
In addition, Preston have conceded at least 1 goal in 12 of their 17 away matches so far in this season’s campaign.
This could come into play when they make the trip down to the nation’s capital to take on Fulham this Saturday, especially as Fulham have a certain Aleksander Mitrovic (22 goals) in their attacking personnel.