Cottagers star Tom’s really enjoying the thrill of the chase

TOM CAIRNEY believes Fulham can win their own version of The Chase – and the £120million prize that comes with it.

Cairney answered correctly when Bristol City asked questions about the Cottagers’ staying power by scoring a deserved late equaliser with a superb curling strike.

Still to come, though, are the tough head-tohead rounds – Fulham must go to Leeds a week on Wednesday and then to West Brom on April 18 as they chase down the Championship’s top two.

“There are a lot of games left in a short space of time and lots of things can happen before the end of the season,” said Cairney.

“We’ll see if Leeds and West Brom fall. We have the players to win those games and our No.9 (Aleksandar Mitrovic) is the top scorer in the league. I don’t see why we can’t go there and pick up three points.

“No doubt Leeds will have had an eye on our result today. It can work both ways. You can either put the pressure on by winning early, or feel the pressure if they have already won.

“Last week we watched them win at Hull and knew we had to beat Preston and that’s what we did.”

Bristol City thought they had set Fulham a problem they couldn’t solve as they clung on to Nahki Wells’ opening goal. But Cairney (above) had absorbed the message of his manager Scott Parker (below), who believes the Scotland midfielder should have scored more than the eight goals he has managed so far this season.

“I always think about the pass before I shoot, whereas most people think about the shot,” admitted Cairney, whose influence went well beyond his goal.

“The manager has been on to me a little bit. Hopefully I can get a few more in the games we’ve got coming up. We’ve got some against teams around us so we need to take points off them to catch Leeds and West Brom.”

Bristol City have taken just two points from the last 15 available but somehow remain just a point outside the play-offs as everyone else in the race continues to stumble. Wells admitted: “The frustrating bit is to get so close to earning three points and then lose out on two points, which would’ve put us in a really good position.

“But it’s still a good point to get as they are a side that we could potentially still be facing at the end of the season.”