Three weeks ago Slavisa Jokanovic joked that Cardiff City, his main rival for promotion, would drop points against Reading on the final day. As that fixture arrives, he is not about to change his mind. “Why am I not going to be positive?” the Fulham manager said before this crucial Championship weekend. “Why am I not going to believe Reading will win the game? From my side, it’s a human thing to do.”
Just in case he appeared too confident, Jokanovic also described Neil Warnock’s side as having “one and a half feet in the Premier League”. Cardiff are a point ahead of Fulham, with an inferior goal difference, and if they beat Reading at home on Sunday lunchtime they will secure automatic promotion behind Wolves. If Fulham achieve a better result at Birmingham than Cardiff manage, it will be a different story. For the Serb, everything is still in play.
“I was asked many months ago where we were going to finish in the Championship,” Jokanovic said. “I still have the same answer: everything is going to be open until the end.”
His original prediction was prompted by Warnock, who had offered the teasing thought that Fulham might drop points against Sunderland. In the end Fulham snatched a 2-1 win through Aleksandar Mitrovic last Friday, but Cardiff kept their noses in front thanks to a comfortable win at Hull.
“We knew many months ago Wolves would be promoted,” Jokanovic said. “They are living a different dream. But I am surprised with Cardiff, if you want, because at the beginning of season I didn’t see they would be the team with one foot and a half in the Premier League.”
The Bluebirds went up as champions in 2012-13 with 87 points, one fewer than Fulham’s total now. Jokanovic’s team could end up in the play-offs, despite being unbeaten in the league in 2018. Jokanovic has the tricky task of trying to maintain confidence that events may turn in Fulham’s favour while also making sure it does not drain away should his team need the play-off route instead.
His approach is to remain phlegmatic. “Sometimes 87 can be enough, sometimes it’s not,” he said. “Our unbeaten run is incredible but it’s not important. It’s an interesting statistical detail. We have improved greatly in these past months though; we have shown the character to go and win games. I don’t know why we would change now. We have played many finals in the last few months, it’s another final for us and there’s a possibility we might have another two or three finals after this.”
He puts the Cottagers’ improvement down to a strong January window when they brought in the full-backs Cyrus Christie and Matt Targett alongside Aleksandar Mitrovic. The on-loan Newcastle forward has scored an invaluable 14 league goals, while borrowing Targett from Southampton has allowed Ryan Sessegnon to move up from defence and in the process become the division’s player of the season.
“Playing Sess further forward was a nice thought earlier in the season but I didn’t have the opportunity,” Jokanovic said. “With Matt and Aleksandar they make the first team better but also push another part of the team. Since January we have been still more competitive, still more solid and more clinical. If you compare the first half of the season to the second, it’s not hard to see the reasons for our improvement.”
Fulham are “the Manchester City of the Championship”, according to Warnock. “They have a lovely style but then you see they have gone 24 games unbeaten and that we are still above them. Nobody mentions our run but we have not had a bad one either. I’m sure they wish we were not here.”
And so after 4,050 minutes of league football it comes down to the final 90. Jokanovic is confident regardless of the outcome. For Warnock, he happily admits to feeling the tension. He holds the joint record of seven promotions in English football along with Dave Bassett, Jim Smith and the late Graham Taylor. “I have had nerves since I was at Gainsborough Trinity,” Warnock said. “I think the difference is the opportunity to create what I have always been looking for really – that eighth promotion.”
