Fulham v Blackpool: Team news, predicted line-up and pre-match quotes from Neil Critchley

The Seasiders head to the capital off the back of consecutive 1-0 home wins against Hull City and Millwall.

It leaves Neil Critchley’s side in 12th place in the table, eight points adrift of the play-offs with a game in hand.

The odds will be stacked against them this weekend though against a rampant Fulham side who sit five points clear at the top of the table.

Marco Silva’s side have started the New Year with a bang, winning all four league games with 22 goals being scored in the process.

The Cottagers have hit the back of the net an extraordinary 73 times already this season from just 27 games.

Striker Aleksandar Mitrovic has scored 27 league goals on his own, just one fewer than Blackpool’s overall tally.

However, a win for Blackpool on Saturday would complete a league double over Fulham, having earned a 1-0 victory back at Bloomfield Road back in September courtesy of Josh Bowler’s fine solo effort.

Peter Bankes, who refereed Blackpool’s 3-0 defeat to Luton Town earlier in the season, is the man in charge this weekend.

Team news

The Seasiders will have to do without Kevin Stewart, although this time it won’t be as a result of injury.

The midfielder has been called up to the Jamaican squad for their World Cup qualifiers and will miss the visit to Craven Cottage as a result.

It’s a far from ideal situation for Neil Critchley’s side, who had only just seen Stewart get back to fitness after a lengthy spell on the sidelines with an ankle injury.

It leaves Pool light on options in central midfield, as Kenny Dougall, Ethan Robson and Callum Connolly - who is predominately a defender - as the only three players available.

Elsewhere, Pool are without eight players through injury in Chris Maxwell (quad), Luke Garbutt (knee), James Husband (hamstring), Reece James (hamstring), Matty Virtue (ACL), Grant Ward (achilles), Sonny Carey (metatarsal) and Keshi Anderson (hamstring).

Garbutt became the latest player to join the sidelines after suffering a Grade 2 posterior cruciate ligament injury during last week’s 1-0 win against Millwall.

According to the defender, it will leave him out for around 10 weeks.

With James and Husband already injured, it means the Seasiders are without a recognised left-back.

It could mean Dujon Sterling fills in there again, as he did so well after Garbutt hobbled off last week, or the Seasiders could well change their shape.

Jordan Thorniley, who was recently recalled from his loan at Oxford United, is also left-sided and could cover there in an emergency.

Charlie Kirk could be in line to make his debut after sealing a loan move from Charlton Athletic on Thursday, with the deal including an option to buy.

Fulham, meanwhile, are boosted by the return of Harry Wilson and top goalscorer Aleksandar Mitrovic, who missed last week’s win against Stoke City.

Neil Critchley’s pre-match comments

“We know Fulham away, with the form they’re in, this is the most difficult game you face in this division. You can’t get a tougher fixture than this,” Critchley said.

“They’ve won the most games in the division, they’ve lost the least, they’re a Premier League team in waiting really.

“We know the task we’re facing, but we’ve won back-to-back games and we’ve beaten them once already this season.

“It will be doubly difficult away from home where it will be completely different (to the 1-0 win in September), but our record against the top teams last season and this season has been relatively good, so we can draw some confidence from that.

“When we cross the white line on Saturday, I will have an expectation on us performing and performing well. We will be prepared.

“It’s about us being us and not changing who we are, believing in what we’re doing and we’ve got to give everything we’ve got to try and get a result.

“We’re no different home and away, so why not go to Fulham and try and be the best of what we can be?

“The run they’re on is absolutely incredible. Seven goals, six, six, then they go to Stoke last week without Harry Wilson and Aleksandar Mitrovic and still score three goals against a Stoke side that are really well organised and hard to score against.

“It’s not just the attacking players at the top end of the pitch, although they’re obviously a massive plus. But their whole team, with the way they build up from the back, the way they control the game through the midfield, they’ve just got a high quality team.

“They’re well coached as well, so they’re an excellent team. In this league, as the table suggests, they are the best team.”

Opposition view

“We go into every game expecting to win but knowing that we must work at least the same as our opponents to win the match,” Marco Silva said.

“Our players know that the demands we place on ourselves are really high, from myself and the players as well. And they go into the match knowing it will be really difficult, but the main thing is the three points.

“If you score a good number of goals or not, it will be a consequence from our performance, but the main thing for us is to win football matches.

“We’ll show a big respect to our opponents because we know how hard we have to work to achieve these types of [big] results.

“We have to stay really humble in this competition, keep our feet on the ground, because nothing is easy in football and we have to keep working really hard.

“First I would like to win the match, and myself and my players and my staff will do our best to win the game, respecting Blackpool of course, it will be tough for sure. They’re a team with very good organisation, but we’ll do our best to win the match again.

“Our offensive organisation has been really, really good, but of course we clearly have to improve in some moments.

“The room to improve is still really big for us. Of course, I would like to see our team keep winning football matches, but keeping clean sheets [as well] would be the perfect scenario.”

Pool’s predicted line-up (442): Grimshaw, Gabriel, Ekpiteta, Keogh, Sterling, Connolly, Dougall, Bowler, Hamilton, Lavery, Madine

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