Jol's Cup Hope

The FA Cup with Budweiser is a competition Martin Jol will be taking seriously with Fulham.

The Whites have never won the famous trophy – reaching the Final in 1975 – and host Blackpool in the Third Round on Saturday (3pm).

“It’s exciting when you get through to the next round,” said Jol. “I would love to get to the Final but there is only a 10 per cent chance.

“In the League Cup, managers play lesser teams but the FA Cup is different. It’s important and managers will play their best teams most of the time. The best teams will be in the Final.”

Jol believes a cup run would give Fulham’s season some added sparkle after a disappointing couple of months.

“We started off the first three months in excellent form,” stated Jol. “But then we got key injuries and I had to play different teams. We lost four points against Southampton in the dying moments of our two games with them.

“There have been three or five matches where we should have had the points. I always feel you get what you deserve but we could have had 32 points. But sometimes we were not good enough.

“We’ve got a lot of players on their way back from injury now and hopefully we can have a string of good results as soon as possible.”

One player who Jol hopes to see in a White shirt by February is Simon Davies. The Welshman has been absent all season through injury but Jol believes the midfielder is making progress towards a First Team return.

“Simon is almost a project,” said Jol. “We’re tying to get him fit. We had a little Under-21s friendly on Friday which he wanted to play 45 minutes in but I told him it was better if he started next week.

“He’s training now and we are monitoring him very closely. He feels a bit better. He’s a very experienced person and he knows his body. Hopefully he will be back in three or four weeks.”

Finally, Jol has confirmed that he is still looking to loan Pajtim Kasami out – if he can find the right club for the Swiss midfielder.

“Firstly there must be a club that will promise to play Kasami and then we will think about it,” said Jol. “I’ve got three other youngsters in the reserves who should go out on loan. I feel it’s very good for them.”