Managers put friendship on hold for Cottage clash

FULHAM manager Chris Coleman is backing his old friend Gareth Southgate to become a top manager.

The pair, on opposite sides when Fulham play Middlesbrough at Craven Cottage tonight, shared their early careers at Crystal Palace.

Fulham’s run of four defeats in the last five games has seen them slip to 15th place in the Premiership from a season’s high of seventh only a few weeks ago.

Their depleted squad was further weakened when skipper Luis Boa Morte, fellow midfielder Papa Bouba Diop and defender Ian Pearce joined their already long casualty list following last weekend’s 4-0 setback at Liverpool.

“If Middlesbrough win they go above us so this is a big game. It’s so tight this season,” acknowledged Coleman, who hopes to have goalkeeper Antti Niemi and former Boro defender Franck Queudrue back from injury.

Coleman added: “We’ve just had a bad run of games, our worst run this season but, rather than getting down about it, you are always looking at the positives.

“We can’t keep harping on about Liverpool and losing 4-0 because we can’t do anything about that.

“The teams below us are having their good runs so we just have to put another good run together because they’ll hit another sticky patch and that’s when we can capitalise.”

Meanwhile, Lee Cattermole has identified Mark Viduka’s absence through injury as a major reason for Middlesbrough’s indifferent form.

Gareth Southgate’s side go into tonight’s clash having gained just six points out a possible 24. Significantly, Boro are yet to win away this season and need the points at Craven Cottage if they are not to suffer a miserable start to their Christmas campaign.

The Teessiders won just once during Viduka’s six-match stint on the sidelines due to broken toes, but the Australian striker started his comeback as a sub at Spurs on December 5 and was a starter in the 1-1 draw with Wigan four days later.

And Cattermole was quick to emphasise Viduka’s importance to the Boro team, saying: “He is a figurehead, he is the target man up there. That is what we have been missing.”

Tonight’s clash affords the Boro players the opportunity to catch up with former team-mate Franck Queudrue.

The French left-back, who signed for the Cottagers in the summer, is expected to return to Coleman’s line-up following an injury-enforced absence and Cattermole, for one, is looking forward to playing against him.

He said: “I have not spoken to Franck, but a few of the lads have and they say he is happy down there, so that is good. “But hopefully he will be on the losing side.”