Fulham captain Tom Cairney feels Fulham ‘can do something special’ as they bid to keep up their promotion push heading into crucial fixtures against Bristol City, Wolves and Derby County over the next fortnight.

Slavisa Jokanovic’s side head to Ashton Gate for a crunch clash with Lee Johnson’s Robins tonight just days after ending Aston Villa’s seven-match winning streak at Craven Cottage. Saturday’s win over Steve Bruce’s side was Cairney’s first start for Fulham since January 2 – and the Scottish midfielder knows that he has returned to action at a vital point in the club’s campaign.

Cairney told Sky Sports that maintaining the Whites’ current ten-match unbeaten run could go a long way to sustaining Fulham’s outside chance of automatic promotion from the Championship:

It’s huge. I think it defines your season. As you say, all those teams are around us or above us – it’s a massive and I think it is going to define what we do this season. I think it is important that we haven’t got many in the physio room at the minute. We’ve got a strong squad and we’re going to need it over the next couple of weeks.

The former Hull City and Blackburn playmaker believes Fulham’s unbeaten start to 2018 has now eclipsed their excellent run at the end of last season that helped propel the Whites into the play-off places.

It’s a special run and we’ve really climbed the table. We’re in form at a great time – it’s just maintaining it until the end of the season and we shouldn’t be far off. The second half of last season was very, very good form but I think this is even better at the minute, so we know what we’re capable off. Everything in the dressing room is not getting too carried away. We know what we’re capable off and I think we can do something special.