Middlebrough coach Jonathan Woodgate believes Fulham will be just as tough a nut to crack as West Brom and Preston.
Middlebrough reserved two of their best performances of the campaign so far for their Yuletide visits to The Hawthorns and Deepdale, winning both games 2-0.
Now, they are looking to record a third successive Championship away win on the spin at Craven Cottage tonight (ko 7.45pm).
Boro have been preparing for the game at Crystal Palace’s training ground, making the return journey from their base in Chiswick, west London.
Woodgate didn’t want his players to have to make the long journey north in the early hours of Wednesday morning following the 2-1 FA Cup loss and Spurs only to return back to the capital a day later.
Speaking to Teesside Live at the team hotel in London, the Boro boss said: “It was worthwhile staying down here because the travelling would have been a nightmare going back late the other night and travelling back down the next day.”
On the game, he added: “I’ll shake things up a bit and make changes. Three games in six days so I’ll have to make changes.
“Fulham are seven points off automatic promotion, one of the best teams in the Championship.
“They got relegated from the Premier League last year and they still have a lot of Premier League players.”
Fulham boss Scott Parker will be without his talismanic striker Aleksander Mitrovic but the hosts will still be a tough team to overcome.
“They’re going to miss Mitrovic but they’ve still got some very good players,” said Woodgate.
“It’s a difficult place to go. Just as hard as Preston, just as hard as West Brom.
“Can we win? Who knows. It’s our third game in six days so it’s stacked against us. We might have to look at the formation, we might have to look at a four so let’s see.”
The Boro players should be full of confidence after giving Spurs a fright in two well-contested FA Cup ties.
Tuesday’s 2-1 defeat was an important lesson for the players, says Woodgate.
“It had no effect on their confidence at all,” he said. “They’ll be more positive because they will realise what they can do when they don’t make little mistakes.