Fulham manager Roy Hodgson takes his Fulham team to face Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Tuesday desperate to remedy a travel sickness which is threatening their Premier League life.
Fulham lie 10th in the table but they have not won away from home in the league this season.
What is more, they have scored just three league goals on their travels, the worst record of any club, not just in the top flight but in the entire Football League.
It is why Hodgson admits he is looking back anxiously, like most managers in the tightest of leagues.
Hodgson said: “More than half the league are looking over their shoulder worried that if they lose a couple they will be dragged down into the relegation zone. Very few teams are knocking on the door of the Champions League
“It was very tight in mid-September and everyone was saying we should wait a couple of months for it to change.
“Two months went past and it was ‘Let’s wait until Christmas.’ But the league hasn’t taken a different kind of shape and here we are near the end of January with the league exactly the same as mid-September.”
The tightness is highlighted by the fact that if Fulham lose on Wearside then Sunderland, currently two points off rock bottom, will go level with them on 26 points.
The goal drought is Hodgson’s main problem, even though they smacked in four against non-league Kettering in the FA Cup on Saturday.
Two of those came in the last two minutes from Andrew Johnson and Bobby Zamora, although Hodgson would have been pleased to see midfielders Simon Davies and Danny Murphy also getting on the scoresheet.
Hodgson said: “We are concerned. We need to start ensuring points away from home. During our good run we picked up points away but we weren’t getting wins. Three draws only equate to one win. We are aware of that.
“It’s a question of being able to reproduce the good performances we had during that run and getting that small margin working in your favour that turns a draw into victory.
“I don’t think we’re that far away. I’d be more concerned if we never had a chance away from home and were playing poorly.”
Hodgson experimented by playing midfielder Clint Dempsey up front against Kettering but abandoned that in the second half, bringing on Zamora to link up with Johnson.
Fulham, however, will continue to play open, passing football, according to Hodgson.
He added: “We’re not the type of team that drags everyone back behind the ball and hopes for the best.
“When we get the ball we attack and try to score. We haven’t been able to do that as much as we’d have liked, but there’s not so much we can change.
“Our style of play is geared to both attacking and defending. We’ll continue to work that way and hope results on the road will come.”
