COTTAGERS’ RIVALS NOW SO CAIRFUL

TOM CAIRNEY believes Fulham are paying for their play-off push last season.

The Cottagers beat struggling Birmingham for a third win in four games in a campaign that has been mixed so far.

And skipper Cairney (above) thinks the team – who lost in the play-off semi-finals last term – cannot surprise opponents this time round.

“I think it’s because of what we did last season, we used to batter teams – it’s been hard this season, a lot of teams know about us now,” he said. “It’s tough, you can tell teams definitely try and stop us now. It’s down to us to get over that week in, week out.

“Last season we didn’t hit form until the new year, when we really kicked on. Hopefully, a few dirty single-goal wins can set us on that path. Two wins on the bounce and you can shoot up the league, I’ve never seen it so tight after this amount of games before.”

Sheyi Ojo’s goal was enough to defeat a toothless City side.

Jeremie Boga put a penalty over the bar for Blues, who remain in the bottom three and their fans voiced frustration both at the break and at full-time.

Boss Steve Cotterill, who took charge in October, said: “I think the away form is already in the players’ heads. We’ve tried to get a result to change that. When you look at the performance at Sheffield United, it was different to Millwall where we got beaten earlier on.”