Fulham manager Slavisa Jokanovic has declared that he is confident his side will reach the Premier League via this season's playoffs.

The Serbian coach said that his team will prove wrong those who wrote them off for promotion after they made a slow start to the campaign.

"Nobody believed in us in the middle of December, nobody thought we would be fighting for the Premier League. But we showed we are strong and are a good team," the EveningStandard quotes Jokanovic as saying

"Behind us is a big number of games where we played great football and showed great quality, character and organisation. We know we did not perform well against Birmingham but now we must be brave, stick together and be ready for the challenge.

"Like in tennis, we lost one set point and now we must be ready for the next one. I expect in a few weeks we are going to be up."

Fulham's playoff campaign gets underway this evening when they travel to Derby County for the first leg of their semi-final tie.