Scott Parker heaped the Premier League promotion pressure on rivals Brentford and West Brom by insisting Fulham have the momentum now.
Aleksandar Mitrovic went top of the Championship scoring charts with a brace to reach 26 league goals for the season as Fulham saw off Sheffield Wednesday 5-3 at Craven Cottage.
Neeskens Kebano also bagged a brace, with Bobby Decordova-Reid netting late on before Harrison Reed saw red, as Fulham carried the promotion race into Wednesday’s final round of fixtures.
Fulham travel to Wigan, third-placed Brentford host Barnsley and second-placed West Brom entertain QPR. The Whites can still swipe second place and automatic promotion, leaving Parker bullish about Fulham’s chances.
“The momentum is definitely with us,” said Parker.
“I feel we had two negative results coming out of lockdown, but since then my team have been very, very good and we’ve ground out results.
“This season at times we’ve been 10, 13 points adrift, we’ve had to fight, battle and understand the pressures that come with that.
“My team probably haven’t got the credit they’ve deserved.
“West Brom and Brentford, people have said how fantastic they are, and they are, but we’re two points off it.
“This league pulls up many surprises and in this current climate that is still going to be the case.”
West Brom’s 2-1 loss at Huddersfield and Brentford’s 1-0 defeat at Stoke opened the door for Fulham to keep their automatic promotion hopes alive.
And Parker admitted Fulham can take great confidence from securing a fifth win in six matches.
“It’s a massive win, result-wise it was key for us today, we understood that, we knew what was at stake.
“There were two scenarios obviously, and we saw the West Brom and Brentford results, so we knew we needed to win today to keep the automatic hopes alive.
“The season at times this year there’s been some upsets along the way.
“There’s been big pressure throughout the year, but there’s different pressures asserted on my team, from me and the outside.
“The result was key, and we stood up to that today.
“We take this to the last game, which is massive really.
“We go now to a very good in-form Wigan team, and hopefully we can get another result there.
“If our season ends on Wednesday, amazing, and if it doesn’t we’ll try and finish it off.”
Fulham boasted a 3-0 lead at the break in west London and were coasting, until Wednesday’s half-time changes added impetus to the Owls.
Atde Nuhiu’s double and Jacob Murphy’s strike ensured a nervy finish for the Whites, but Decordova-Reid’s goal cemented another big win for Parker’s men.
Wednesday boss Garry Monk lamented a fruitless comeback for his side.
“To score three goals against a very good side but come off losing, through errors we have made, it is very frustrating,” said Monk.
“We make a few steps forward, then take a few back and that has proved very costly for us. They were poor goals and when we got them on the ropes, we compounded ourselves with more errors.
“But the time for talking is done and there will personal changes and the club will help me do that to get that consistency we desperately need. It’s bitterly frustrating. We have to finish at home with a win.”
