Town boss Mick McCarthy has warned that despite Fulham’s current lowly position their squad still contains players with Premier League experience as well as a number of promising youngsters. The Cottagers, who were amongst the pre-season favourites for promotion following their relegation in May, are currently 18th in the Championship, five points from the relegation zone.
"The front guys are certainly a strength,” said McCarthy, whose side climbed back to fourth following Tuesday’s 2-1 victory over Sheffield Wednesday. "I don’t know if Scott Parker’s playing, he’s been poorly, I think.
"They’ve still got good players left [from the Premier League] and they’ve got good young players.
"They went out and bought young players that they thought were going to be good enough for the Premier League.
"I think in the Championship on any given day it’s how you take your chances and they’ve got an £11 million striker, [Ross McCormack].
"So if we make mistakes and we give them chances they might take them and it’s difficult to get back. Hugo Rodallega’s still playing for them as well, they’ve got some good players.
"They are a young group of players but they’ve good good players as well and they’ve got some experienced players.”
Kit Symons took over as boss in October having done well as caretaker-manager following Felix Magath’s sacking.
McCarthy says the former Welsh international has taken on a difficult job: "Kit’s inherited it after two or three managers, there have been a lot over a period of time, but just in recent times there have been a few.
"He got it as caretaker-manager and did amazingly well and even then they were still considering somebody else.
"It’s difficult, I think, for anybody to take over in those circumstances. Managers that were changing, coaching staff that were changing and then players that were changing and I think he’s settled it down and is doing a very good job of it.”
The Blues are set to be backed by an away following of more than 4,000, thought to be their biggest in the league since 4,310 made the trip to Reading back in 2005, with 250 making the voyage by boat.
McCarthy says he’s been hugely impressed by the travelling Blue Army: "When I watched the Rotherham game back again I was amazed at the support that we had, it was fantastic.
"Unfortunately we didn’t get the result but we had enough chances. Let’s hope we give them something to shout about and enjoy.”
Tickets will be available to Town fans on the day in a 'neutral zone’, for cash only with an increase on previous prices of £5. Fans planning to take the train should note the current major disruption on the line.
The Town boss has decisions to make having made five changes to his team for Tuesday’s victory over the Owls but feeling some of the players who came in might not be up to two games in a week after playing little first-team football in recent months.
Bartosz Bialkowski is set to continue in goal with goalscoring skipper Luke Chambers at right-back and Christophe Berra and Tommy Smith at the heart of the defence.
McCarthy will have to choose whether Jonny Parr starts at left-back or Tyrone Mings comes back into the XI. Against Wednesday Mings came on at half-time and Parr was pushed into midfield.
Starting the Norwegian in that wide left role may be something McCarthy is considering but Stephen Hunt and Jay Tabb are also options.
Centrally, McCarthy may well decide to return to the Cole Skuse-Kevin Bru partnership with the Mauritian international having been one of Town’s best performers after he replaced Teddy Bishop against the Owls.
On the right, Darren Ambrose may be handed a second league start since returning for his third spell with the club but may not last the full 90 minutes having played relatively little first-team football.
Up front, Daryl Murphy will be looking to net his 20th goal of the season to become the first Town player to net 20 in the league since David Johnson’s 22 in the 1999/00 promotion season.
McCarthy has hinted that Freddie Sears will keep his place after an impressive performance against Wednesday even if David McGoldrick is over his thigh problem, as is expected to be the case.
Recently signed 19-year-old right winger Dylan Connolly will travel with the senior squad for the first time and has been handed the number 24 shirt.
Luke Hyam and Alex Henshall - who returned from his loan spell at Blackpool last week - are the only players currently sidelined with injuries, both with knee problems.
Fulham skipper Scott Parker is expected to be back in the Cottagers’ midfield from the start having been on the bench for Tuesday’s 3-1 defeat to Bolton having been ill.
Full-backs Tim Hoogland (hernia) and Fernando Amorebieta (knee) are both close to a return but the Town game may come too soon for them.
Costa Rica World Cup star Bryan Ruiz is set to be amongst the subs after a loan move to Spanish side Levante collapsed.
Town and the Cottagers last met at Craven Cottage in the Premier League in the Blues’ 2001/02 relegation campaign.
That game, played in the October, ended 1-1 with Town unable to break down a Fulham side which was down to 10 men for most of the game.
Luis Boa Morte saw red just before half-time for a dive, although in truth he should have gone earlier for an elbow on Fabian Wilnis.
Town, who lost Finidi George to a broken cheekbone early on, had already gone behind to a Barry Hayles goal with the equaliser from Jermaine Wright coming in the second half.
On the opening day of this season at Portman Road, David McGoldrick came off the bench to score the decisive goal as Town won 2-1.
McGoldrick added to Daryl Murphy’s first-half goal in the 61st minute with Tim Hoogland pulling one back late on for the visitors.
Historically, the sides have met relatively rarely with the Blues victorious on seven occasions (five in the league), Fulham on eight (seven) and with seven (five) games ending in draws.
The Whites' last victory over the Blues was the famous 10-1 win at Craven Cottage on Boxing Day 1963.
Fulham are without a win in their last five games in all competitions and have won only two of their last 12 matches.
Ex-Town loanee Ryan Tunnicliffe joined the Cottagers in January 2014 from Manchester United after ending his spell at Portman Road early, while former Blue Brian Talbot is the chief scout at Craven Cottage, where he briefly played late on in his career.
The fourth-placed Blues have an opportunity to make up some ground on leaders Middlesbrough and third-placed Derby who are in FA Cup action this weekend. Bournemouth in second will go back to the top if they draw with Huddersfield at home.
Saturday’s referee is Mark Haywood from West Yorkshire, who has shown 85 yellow cards and three reds in 28 games so far this season.
Haywood’s most recent Town match was the 0-0 home draw with Blackpool in February last year in which he booked three of the visitors and no Town players.
Squad from: Bialkowski, Gerken, Chambers (c), Mings, Parr, Berra, Smith, Clarke, Skuse, Bru, Bishop, Ambrose, Anderson, Tabb, S Hunt, Stewart, Connolly, Murphy, Sears, McGoldrick, N Hunt.