Marco Silva was in reflective mood during Thursday’s pre-match press conference. He felt it was ‘impossible’ to consider this season a failure, despite losing four of their last five games just when a chance to clinch to European qualification presented itself. Some of the performances in that run – that could be extended to three straight defeats with another derby defeat this afternoon – have been abject, but the Fulham head coach still believes he is ahead of schedule at Craven Cottage. Brentford, whose magnificent recent run had put them in pole position for a continental place until Crystal Palace stunned Manchester City in yesterday’s FA Cup final, will be out to avenge their defeat in the reverse fixture, when substitute Harry Wilson’s stunning stoppage-time double broke their hearts.

Silva has always stressed the importance of progress, from simply surviving in the top flight to break the yo-yo cycle that saw Scott Parker depart, to establishing the Whites in the top tier again and then looking to kick on from mid-table. Fulham might well have managed that this season – and the Cup capitulation at home to Palace still rankles, especially when we watched Oliver Glasner’s Eagles end their trophy drought. He is still eyeing eclipsing the record Premier League points tally put together by Roy Hodgson’s team in 2008/09 (53) – even if it looks very unlikely that this squad could follow that up with a European tour. Then there’s the chance to register a league double over the Bees for the first time since 1948.

It won’t be easy. Silva was fulsome in his praise for the job that Thomas Frank has done in Hounslow – as you have to be. Brentford are exceptionally well run football club, with Matthew Benham’s investment and modelling seemingly uninterrupted by personnel changes. The Bees shrugged off Joe Bryan’s brilliant brace at Wembley and the loss of Ollie Watkins to go up the year after as Fulham unravelled in the closing weeks of that campaign and went from strength to strength in the top tier. They look even more formidable in the top flight without Ivan Toney – which seems ridiculous until you consider how Yoane Wissa, Kevin Schade and Bryan Mbuemo have stretched defences all season.

Both sides look to play attractive and attacking football so the spectacle in prospect should be better than the soporific stalemate served up towards the tail end of last term at the GTech. The Bees have a combative and classy midfield, with Danish duo Mikkael Damsgaard, Christian Norgaard and Mathias Jensen a tricky proposition to penetrate, whilst Frank’s defence has the miserly Ethan Pinnock, whose young son has just signed for the Whites, Ben Mee, Nathan Collins and Kristoffer Ajer providing considerable competition for places at centre half alone.

The might welcome back Aaron Hickey, who hasn’t played since October 2023 but Frank will definitely have to do without Vitaly Janelt, Joshua Dasilva and former Fulham academy graduate Fabio Carvalho, who could so easily have clinched at the Cottage for his new employers in November having come off the bench to a chorus of boos. You hope that the Whites will be motivated by a couple of below par performances into raising their game for the derby – but Fulham have been notoriously difficult to predict over the past month or so.

Silva should have Sasa Lukic back to join Sander Berge in the middle of the park, but the Serbian faces a late fitness test as does full back Antonee Robinson, who returned to full training at Motspur Park late in the week. It remains to be seen whether the Fulham boss will want to shake things up further in terms of personnel given how furious he was with the way the Whites let another lead slip away against Everton – but Fulham will need to fight from the first whistle to try and record a first win at Brentford since Tom Cairney’s classy finish silenced Griffin Park nine years ago.

MY FULHAM XI (4-2-3-1): Leno; Tete, A. Robinson, Andersen, Bassey; Lukic, Berge; Wilson, R. Sessegnon, Smith Rowe; Jimenez. Subs: Benda, Cuenca, Cairney, King, Willian, Iwobi, Godo, Traore, Osmand.