Tomas Kalas has admitted Fulham are desperate to keep a Championship clean sheet – but the Czech centre back knows that ending a run of seven games without one won’t be easy at Villa Park.

The Whites travel to Aston Villa, the division’s in-form side with an abundance of attacking riches tomorrow, aiming to extend their winning streak away from home that saw them record back-to-back victories at Nottingham Forest and QPR before the international break. The centre half, on loan from Chelsea, told Get West London’s Ryan O’Donovan that he can’t quite put his finger on why the Whites have failed to pick up from where they left off last season in terms of defensive solidity:

It’s difficult to answer, I don’t want to make excuses but sometimes it’s just luck, you know challenges where it will rebound or whatever and it just didn’t turn out in our favour. Lack of concentration and lack of what we demand from one another when you just need to focus and together, especially in the last ten minutes when you’re leading 1-0 or 2-1, you don’t want to lose and you should just put your life on the ground almost and stop them from scoring.

Kalas knows Steve Bruce can call on plenty of creative players and attacking threats that he knows well from his own time in the Championship – and such resources could mean Fulham might well have their hands full tomorrow.

A clean sheet at Villa Park would be nice and that would mean we gain at least one point, but it will be really difficult because they have spent quite a lot of money, especially on the players that go forward.

They have [Albert] Adomah, who is playing well and who I played with at Middlesbrough, so I know he is a good player and [Jonathan] Kodjia who everyone knows is a good player and all of them – [Robert] Snodgrass, I could name everyone from their first 11 and they would all be experienced, good players. It will be difficult but it will be even more pleasing to keep a clean sheet there.