Preview: Fulham vs. Norwich City

Two of last season's relegated clubs go head to head on Saturday as managerless Fulham take on Norwich City at Craven Cottage.

Both sides have adapted differently to life back in the second tier of English football, with Fulham struggling and the Canaries flying high at the top.

Things have begun to look a little more promising for Fulham in recent weeks, however, with caretaker boss Kit Symons guiding their side to the first win of the campaign before following that up with a 4-0 drubbing of Bolton Wanderers.

Defeat to Middlesbrough last time out means that they remain in the bottom three, though, and their chances of recovering from such a dreadful start and pushing for the playoffs come May get slimmer with every dropped point.

The search for a permanent boss at Craven Cottage continues, although the improvement of results under Symons has led to him becoming one of the standout candidates, and another victory over the league leaders this weekend would do his case no harm whatsoever.

He will still be without striker Matt Smith through suspension, however, with Hugo Rodallega expected to partner Ross McCormack up front.

Norwich's quest for an immediate return to the Premier League has gone a lot smoother than that of Fulham so far, with Neil Adams guiding his side to the top of the table after 11 games.

Even so, they have been fairly fortunate that the teams around them have also dropped points recently, having won just one of their last five outings in all competitions.

That victory did come in their last away outing, however, and their form on the road this season has been highly impressive with 12 points from a possible 12 since their opening-day defeat.

They have found the net 11 times on their travels during that spell, helping to make them the league's highest scorers so far with 21 goals.

Kyle Lafferty is one who has not contributed to that tally so far, although he is pushing for a start this weekend, while Alexander Tettey will also be hopeful of a recall.

Recent form

Fulham: LWWWLL

Norwich: DLWLDW

Possible starting lineups

Fulham: Bettinelli; Hoogland, Burn, Bodurov, Amorebieta; Ruiz, Parker, Stafylidis, Christensen; Rodallega, McCormack

Norwich: Ruddy; Martin, Hooiveld, Turner, Olsson; Howson, Johnson, Redmond, Jerome, Hoolahan; Grabban

Sports Mole says: 1-2