Fulham will be looking to make a return to the Premier League on Saturday when they play Aston Villa at Wembley

Here is the story of their journey to the final.

Championship season

Fulham finished the season in third place after losing out on automatic promotion to Cardiff City on the final day of the Championship season. Fulham only found themselves in this position after they had gone on an unbeaten run from December 16, after a defeat to Sunderland all the way through to the final day of the season, when they were defeated by Birmingham City at St Andrews. Fulham have been unbeaten at Craven Cottage since November. One of Fulham’s players scooped up all the personal Championship honours at the EFL Awards in April. Ryan Sessegnon took home both Young and Senior Player of the Year awards as well as the Apprentice of the year. Sessegnon was also featured in the EFL TOTS.

Play Off Semi-Final First Leg: Derby County 1-0 Fulham

Fulham did not come back from the East Midlands with the result they would have wanted. The game started at a break neck pace and it was Derby County who got the vital goal to take into the Monday night game. The winner came from the head of veteran striker Cameron Jerome, ten minutes before the break. Derby had to survive an onslaught of Fulham attacks in the second half, to come away with the victory. Fulham's players will have felt that they could have done better in giving service to frontman Aleksandar Mitrovic as the Serb cut a frustrated figure all evening as Richard Keogh and Curtis Davies kept him very quiet. 

Play Off Semi Final Second Leg: Fulham 2-0 Derby County

The second leg started the same way the first had turned into. Derby were content to sit back and let Fulham throw the kitchen sink at them. Fulham had a number of chances to get an equaliser in the tie but a combination of excellent defending and couple of brilliant saves from Rams keeper Scott Carson kept Derby in front with just 45 minutes left of the time.

 The Cottagers made a dream start in the second half when 17 year old wonderkid Ryan Sessegnon wriggled his way into the Rams box and fired into the roof of the net to give the home side the lead on the night and make the tie all square again. The Cottagers did take the lead for the first time in the tie, when Denis Odoi flicked on a Sessegnon corner into the top corner of the Derby net. Fulham continued to dominate the game, as Mitrovic and Aboubakar Kamara had chances to extend the Cottagers lead.

Derby did create a few more chances towards the end of the game, as it was there turn to throw the kitchen sink at Fulham's goal but it was a case of too little too late for the Rams. Fulham were able to see it out and the fans joined the players on the pitch to celebrate reaching their first ever Play-off final and their first appearance at the New Wembley.

 

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