Hughes keen to rattle Spurs

Mark Hughes has been involved in professional football for 30 years but this season is like no other as his Fulham side struggle for survival.

Tuesday’s win over Stoke was enough to appease the fans but the west London club are still in the relegation zone.

The experienced Welshman knows full well the importance of a win on Saturday against Tottenham.

“We are among a group of teams at the bottom and there are not a lot of points that separate us and one win could take someone up to 11th in the league, that’s how tight it is, I have never known a year like it,” Hughes said.

Fulham fans have afforded Hughes more time after that 2-0 win over Stoke and a win over Harry Redknapp’s men would convince them further.

“We’ve had a couple of games in quick succession and you always worry that it will have a negative effect on players,” he said.

“Apart from a few bumps and bruises after a tough game with Stoke everyone has come through ok, which is a bonus.”

“We’ve even had good news on Mousa Dembele, he is looking good. He won’t be ready for the weekend but he has a good chance of playing against West Brom in midweek.”

The absence of strikers Dembele, Bobby Zamora (broken leg) and Andrew Johnson (various) has affected Fulham’s season dramatically especially when the team has such a solid defensive unit.

“I think we have done fine, I think that we have underachieved in some games when we have not been able to convert draws into wins and that is what has held us back.”

“Scoring is our problem and that is obvious to everybody.”

“Defensively we are decent, I don’t think there a lot of teams that have got a record like ours but we have not scored enough goals and we haven’t been in enough situations to score goals.”

One man who is in goal-scoring form is Tottenham winger Gareth Bale and it comes as no surprise to Hughes to see his fellow Welshman playing so well.

“Everyone was aware of the talent that he had as a youngster but he is not a kid anymore. Now he has filled out and is a strong man and you see that in his play and you can see him taking his career on to the next level,” Hughes said.

Fulham have no new injury changes but goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer will be playing his last game before leaving for the Asian Cup with Australia, for what could be a month-long absence.