Craven Cottage hoodoo is next on Alex Neil’s hit list for Norwich City
Robert Green sees the second of Fulham's six goals fired past him during Norwich City's Craven Cottage nightmare of 2005. Photo: Angela Sharpe - Credit: Archant © 2005
Alex Neil has his sights set on yet another landmark victory ahead of tonight's trip to Norwich City's unhappiest of hunting grounds: Craven Cottage.
The Canaries have not won at Fulham in over 30 years but Neil has been something of a record breaker for City.
'That's something we've done regularly away from home, there's been quite a few,' the Scot said. 'Blackburn, Wolves, Nottingham Forest away, were all records that we didn't have good results at for a number of years and Fulham's another one.
'I don't think we had beat Fulham at home until last time we went up (2015), and hopefully we can try and break that record this time round.'
Since Neil arrive in January 2015 he has led the Canaries to a first Wembley appearance in 30 years and a first victory at Old Trafford in 26 years.
Early in his tenure he also steered City to a 2-1 win at Blackburn, their first at Ewood Park in 21 years, and this month's 2-1 Championship win at Wolves was also a first at Molineux in more than 21 years.
The former Hamilton boss now hopes to end the 30-year wait for success at Fulham, as he doesn't like any such negative records hanging over his team.
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'Not only do we want to win to get the three points to keep ourselves top of the league but we want to win also to break that hoodoo so that we don't have 30 years worth of not beating any team, if I'm honest,' he added.
'There's a whole variety of reasons but I wouldn't regard it as the reason that we want to win the game.
'We want to beat every team, every point is crucial to us and as far we're concerned it's another three points up for grabs.'
City head to west London as league leaders, having overtaken Huddersfield at the top of the Championship table at the weekend, and Neil believes he has seen a big change in the mentality of his players recently.
'I think there's a confidence, a belief,' he said. 'I can't remember which manager it was I saw was talking about it, but there's a difference between confidence and belief. We were confident, I would now say we believe, which is a big turning point for us and we're at a stage now where we know if we perform as well as we can, we're a match for anyone.'
