Preview: Fulham vs. Luton Town - prediction, team news, lineups

Fulham will be looking to win the Championship title when they welcome playoff-hopefuls Luton Town to Craven Cottage on Monday evening for a huge match in the second tier of English football.

The home side are currently five points clear of second-placed Bournemouth with two games left, while Luton sit fifth in the table, two points ahead of seventh-placed Middlesbrough.

Match preview

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Fulham have still not been confirmed as Championship winners, with the Cottagers managing to triumph in just one of their last five league matches, losing three times in the process, and Bournemouth's win at Blackburn Rovers on Saturday has kept the race alive, for the moment.

Marco Silva's team would be confirmed as winners with a victory over Luton, though, and it would be staggering if they passed up on first from this position, especially as they have been the outstanding team at this level for almost all of the campaign.

Fulham picked up a point at Bournemouth on April 23 before suffering a 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest last time out but securing promotion back to the Premier League was always the priority this term, and they will once again operate at the top level next term.

Silva's side have the best home record in the Championship this term, picking up 43 points from their 22 matches, but they will be welcoming a Luton outfit with the fifth-best away record, and it would be fair to say that the visitors have plenty to fight for in this match.

Fulham have been held to draws in their last two league games against Luton, but they are unbeaten against Monday's opponents since October 1998 and will be desperate to secure the title with a game to spare, particularly as their final match of the campaign is away to Sheffield United.

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Luton will not be in the mood to hand out any favours, though, as Nathan Jones's side know that a win on Monday evening would secure their spot in the Championship playoffs.

As it stands, the Hatters, who finished 12th in the Championship last term, are fifth in the table, two points ahead of seventh-placed Middlesbrough, who have played a game more.

A victory on Monday would move Luton onto 75 points; they cannot catch either fourth-placed Huddersfield Town or third-placed Nottingham Forest but are level on points with sixth-placed Sheffield United, who only have one match of the regular season left.

The visitors have picked up seven points from their last three Championship matches, beating Forest and Cardiff City in back-to-back fixtures before playing out a 1-1 draw with Blackpool on April 23.

Luton were a Conference team as recent as 2014, so it would be some achievement if they managed to secure a spot in the Premier League for the first time in their history, but there is a lot of football to be played before then.

Team News

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Fulham will again be missing Terence Kongolo through injury, but the league leaders are otherwise in excellent shape heading into the contest with Luton.

Head coach Silva could potentially make two changes to the side that started against Forest, with Tom Cairney and Kenny Tete bidding to return to the first XI.

There are unlikely to be many alterations, though, especially in the final third of the field, with Harry Wilson and Fabio Carvalho both set to start, while Aleksandar Mitrovic will be looking to add to the 41 league goals that he has already scored during a remarkable campaign.

As for Luton, Sonny Bradley and Elijah Adebayo are fresh injury concerns for the visitors, who are missing a number of first-team players at the worst possible stage of the campaign.

Indeed, Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu, Fred Onyedinma, James Bree, Jed Steer, Gabriel Osho, James Shea and Reece Burke are also on the sidelines ahead of this match.

Henri Lansbury could feature in a midfield area for Luton, while Cameron Jerome might hold off competition from Danny Hylton to start alongside Harry Cornick in attack.

Fulham possible starting lineup:

Rodak; Tete, Adarabioyo, Ream, Bryan; Cairney, Reed; Wilson, Carvalho, Reid; Mitrovic

Luton Town possible starting lineup:

Isted; Lockyer, Naismith, Potts; Kioso, Lansbury, Campbell, Bell; Snodgrass; Cornick, Jerome

We say: Fulham 1-0 Luton Town

Fulham's recent form has been patchy at best, but Luton's injury problems are difficult to ignore when picking a result here. We are expecting it to be a tight match on Monday evening but believe that Fulham's superior quality will shine through to confirm their spot at the top of the Championship table.