Fulham v Blackburn latest news

A win for either of these teams on Saturday will edge them towards the magical 40-points mark and the reality is that 38 or 39 points will be enough to preserve Premier League status this season due to the volume of teams scrapping for survival.

Fulham have been making themselves very hard to beat in recent weeks, with the Cottagers having drawn with Manchester City and Chelsea and they have three games where seven points is a realistic target.

Hughes was delighted with the 1-1 draw at Eastlands and praised his players’ commitment after the match.

“You saw a different type of performance,” he said. “In that first game City were excellent and we didn’t have any answers. But in the return we restricted very good players to very few opportunities. That’s a reflection of the work we’ve done and the commitment the players have shown me.”

Blackburn were on the receiving end of a 4-1 tonking at Villa Park last weekend which saw Ryan Nelsen sent off although the central defender has returned to Christchurch after the recent earthquake in New Zealand.

Manager Steve Kean welcomes back Christopher Samba to the team and will be hoping for an improved defensive showing.

He said: “We’ve had a long week. Normally we train very hard on a Tuesday and give the players Wednesday off. But they have been in all week and put in a lot of hard work on the training ground. Hopefully we will get the rewards of that.

“We had a good meeting with the players on Tuesday afternoon. We watched certain aspects of the game against Villa.”

Match betting odds:

Fulham, 3/4 with Paddy Power

Draw, 11/4 with Totesport

Blackburn, 9/2 with bet365