Fulham boss Chris Coleman could do former club Crystal Palace a real favour on Sunday by beating their relegation rivals Norwich at Craven Cottage.
But Coleman’s only thoughts are for his current squad and achieving the win which would give them a respectable mid-table finish after struggling for most of the season.
“We can still finish 12th so there’s still a lot to play for,” said Coleman, who was looking for his side to reproduce the form which produced a 3-1 victory at Ewood Park last weekend.
“We applied ourselves in the right manner at Blackburn. It was a great result and a fantastic performance.
“If we do the same again and get a positive response from the players we can possibly finish 12th, which is a good end to the season for us.
“We’ve had a lot of inconsistency and I’ve had to chop and change the squad quite a lot because of injuries and other things.
“Too many players really have been too inconsistent but, in saying that, for Fulham to finish 12th in the Premiership isn’t that bad really.”
The Fulham boss knows he cannot afford any feelings about the fate of Norwich or Palace, with whom he was relegated twice as a player, and he has no intention of doing that even though he is still in regular touch with Palace assistant manager and former defensive partner Kit Symons.
“A lot of people wrote Norwich off six weeks ago but they have gone on a good run. But if we beat them we will not be sending them down. You get relegated over 38 games not over one,” he added.
“It has come down to this but this is a big game for us, we’re not worried about Norwich. We’re only bothered about what good things can happen for Fulham.”
And despite his regular weekly calls to Symons – who has not been in contact this week – he is not worried about Palace either.
“It’s an exciting end to the season but we can’t do Palace a favour because they haven’t done us any favours. I don’t look at it like that, just that we can do ourselves a favour by winning and finishing as high as we can.
“I talk to Kit every week, he’s one of my best friends, but Kit knows that we’ve got a job to do and that we have to concentrate on ourselves and what Fulham can get out of the game, not what the outcome will be for anyone else.
“It’s just another three points, a big three points for us.”
Coleman also wants his side to repay the support of the fans, especially those who were present for the previous home match – the 3-1 defeat to Newcastle.
“It’s going to be a full house and a great atmosphere,” said Coleman.
“That was the first game we’ve lost at home all year and we don’t want a repeat of that.”
