Fulham vs Stoke preview

Stoke travelled to London this afternoon with both their new loan signing, John Carew and long-serving striker Ricardo Fuller, but how much longer we'll have the benefit of the Jamaican international is any one's guess.

Tony Pulis hasn't got much time to talk of Fulham as he wheels and deals in the final days of the transfer window, so it was left to his deputy, Dave Kemp to provide the build-up to tomorrow's match: 'Confidence is high around the place at the moment', he told the official site. 'But we know that we're now into a particularly tough period of the season with all these away games.

'We've got to do it the hard way over the next few weeks and with the Premier League as it is at the moment, we know that the situation can change very quickly.

'But we've done well in away matches so far this season and there is no reason why we can't pick up the right results in the next few games to continue our progress.'

Fulham's draw at Wigan last week allowed them the luxury of a one point gap between them and those in the drop zone, but the margin of error is very small down at the bottom, so expect a battle against the Cottagers.

It'll be a relief to Mark Hughes that Johnson is back from injury and scoring after last week's late goal to snatch a point at the DW Stadium. He started from the bench, but should be in the starting eleven against the Potters.

Pulis has an abundance of strikers to with Jones, Fuller, Walters, Carew, Tuncay and a nearly fit Sidibe to pick from. It'll be too soon for Mamady, Walters is likely to take a step back after his heroics in the cup along with Fuller and the manager will have to take a view on whether Carew is match fit so it could be between Carew and Tunny as Jones is a guaranteed starter.

If this is Ric's last game for the Potters (and we sincerely hope it isn't) then let's hope he gets on the pitch and goes out in a blaze of glory.

Stuart Attwell

Sunday 30th January: Wolves (away) kick-off: 1pm (FA Cup)
Saturday 5th February: Sunderland (home) kick-off: 12.45pm (live on SKY TV)

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