Fulham Under-21s will be looking to go level on points with Manchester City at the top of PL2 when Hayden Mullins’ side host Middlesbrough on Monday evening, 7pm kick-off.
Sitting in second with 31 points after 13 matches, a win over Boro would see our Young Whites go level with City at the summit of PL2.
However, it’ll be a slightly different looking Fulham side to the one that took to the field in an entertaining 3-3 draw at Aston Villa last time out.
Since then, striker Aaron Loupalo-Bi secured his first loan move, joining Dagenham & Redbridge in the National League, while attacking midfielder Kristian Šekularac has joined Hungarian side Fehérvár in a permanent deal.
The opposition
It’s been a while since Mullins’ side have been in PL2 action, but it’s been an even longer wait for Boro, with Monday’s trip to Motspur Park their first league outing since Friday 17th January.
The National League Cup has been keeping them busy during this brief break from league action, although an impressive win over Tamworth and a penalty shootout defeat to Boston United – finishing with seven points from four matches - wasn’t enough to see Mark Tinkler’s side progress to the knockout stages.
Returning to PL2 matters, they currently sit 24th in the 26-team division, but that doesn’t tell the full story. Boro are playing catch-up on the rest of the league, having only played 11 games so far, while most of their rivals have played 13 or 14.
There has been some change in the visitors’ ranks during the January transfer window too.
The change has come in the striker department, with Ajay Matthews, who had seven goal contributions in his last seven PL2 outings, joining Millwall for an undisclosed fee, and Hazeem Bakre signing for National League North outfit Darlington for the rest of the season.
A couple of new additions also arrived on Teesside last month, as Josh Dede signed from Celtic and Brayden Johnson making the big step up from Eastbourne Borough.
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Form
Fulham – DDLWL
Middlesbrough - WLLLL
Coverage
There will be live updates from Motspur Park over on the @FulhamAcademy page on X, with reaction and highlights to follow on our website.
