MIDDLESBROUGH kick off their fifth consecutive season in the Championship and starts don't come much harder than a trip to face recently relgated Fulham. 

Boro are down in West London for a lunchtime kick off as Neil Warnock leads his side out for another season in the second tier of English football. 

Recent years have seen Boro struggle in the transfer market but strong recruitment work behind the scenes has seen the club bring six new faces into the club in Martin Payero, Matt Crooks, Uche Ikpeazu, Sammy Ameobi, Lee Peltier and Joe Lumley. More signings are expected to come in the next few weeks before the end of the transfer window. 

Fulham have a new man in charge this season in Marco Silva as they look to make an immediate return to England's top flight. 

While Boro are rated as an outside chance to make the play-offs this season, Warnock is quick the fans and his players of the unpredictability of a Championship campaign. 

"I think it’s one of the strongest for quite a while but I say that every year.

"You got through the fixtures and you think ‘is that a good run of fixtures?’ But how can you tell? Sometimes it’s the easiest fixtures that undo you. I’ve got passed that now with I think every game is difficult and we just have to be ready for every and be as best prepared as we can and try and improve the squad in the next three weeks and give us options that we’ve not got at the moment.

"Hope that we don’t get any injuries in the next few weeks until we get a few in and just give it our best shot and enjoy it like I’ve said. I’ve got to enjoy it because of my age, I’ve got to enjoy every minute and I want the fans and the players to do the same."

Silva will take charge of his first Fulham game this afternoon in front of a home crowd at Craven Cottage while Boro are taking a strong away support with them down south. 

Ahead of the season, the Fulham boss has been downplaying their league favourite tags and admits that no one in his squad is concerned by it. 

“When you look for the Championship competition and the contenders, it is normal that you create some favourites and the teams that got relegated, normally they are the three contenders to the competition and they are the favourites, or everyone calls them the favourites,” Silva said.

“There is something natural, it is normal for us and it is not even a pressure for us because we look for that as a normal situation in football.

“Given time, we and other clubs will for sure try to do the same and get to those spots on the table that can give us the chance to play Premier League next season, and there are enough past examples that it is not so easy as everyone thinks.”