Fulham can follow Huddersfield through the Premier League trapdoor

Three days after Huddersfield's record-equalling demise - relegated before the clocks changed with six games still to play - and Fulham step on to the trapdoor.

Defeat at Watford on Tuesday night will send them hurtling back into the Championship after one season.

Should their fate be sealed at Vicarage Road on the second day of April they will join Huddersfield inside the top three of earliest relegations in the Premier League era.

Confirmation, if needed, that we are witnessing the sorry tail-end of two of the worst top-flight campaigns in recent history, each achieved in their own very distinct ways.

Fulham have provided an object lesson in how not to invest the Premier League jackpot, squandering more than £100million on poor recruitment and haemorrhaging goals while Huddersfield tried to operate more sensibly both in the transfer market and on the pitch and yet, this season, have very rarely been close to the opposition goal.

Overall, neither have plumbed the depths of Derby's disastrous campaign in 2007/08 when the Rams won once and claimed only 11 points but they are tilting at other unwanted records.

So far Fulham have collected only two points from 16 games away from home.

Even Derby managed to scrape together three points on the road in a season when they went 32 games without a win and top scorer Kenny Miller scored only four times.

Fulham will match Burnley's record of 17 away defeats in one season if caretaker boss Scott Parker cannot acquire at least a point from Watford, Bournemouth or Wolverhampton.

They are slightly more resilient in defence than earlier in the season but have kept only two clean sheets so far which will set a new Premier League record low if they cannot add another.

At the moment, this particular ignominy is shared by Derby, Birmingham (2007/08), Blackburn and Norwich (both 2011/12) with three clean sheets.

'Confidence is low, it's been a really tough year and there are scars,' said Parker, who has at least gone some distance towards restoring Fulham's identity since stepping in to replace Claudio Ranieri, who was appointed in November in the hope the Italian tactician might arrest the flow of goals conceded under Slavisa Jokanovic.

Ranieri managed to alienate supporters and some of the most popular players without improving results and was sacked with the team 10 points adrift of safety.

Parker stepped up from the backroom staff and has lost his first four at the helm, stretching a losing run to eight games.

Fulham have conceded at least twice in each of their 13 games since the turn of the year, which includes a 2-1 defeat at home against Oldham of League Two in the FA Cup third round.

They have leaked 72 goals at 2.25 per game and should avoid the records set by Swindon, who let in 100 goals in 42 games at 2.38 per game in 1993/94, and were the first to a century since Ipswich somehow conceded 121, 30 years earlier.

Derby, in 07/08, conceded 89 in 38 games at 2.34 per game.

'We need to keep pushing standards,' said Parker, who will be part of the club's rebuild in the Championship although whether that is as manager or not is unclear.

'Performances have progressively got better but we have to understand the result is key. We need to win.'

Unsurprisingly, one of Fulham's two clean sheets came against Huddersfield who have been unable to score and are still two short of Derby's record low of 20 goals in a season.

Jan Siewert's side are three short of the total for fewest goals scored at home in a Premier League season, a record set by Manchester City in 2006/07, and have Leicester, Watford and Manchester United still to visit the John Smith's Stadium.

'We must accept we have got things wrong this season,' said Huddersfield chairman Dean Hoyle as he addressed supporters after two years in the Premier League.

'The truth is you don't end up where we are in the table unless that is the case. The club must learn from what has happened this year. Rest assured we will because there is a genuine desire to improve from everyone at Huddersfield Town.

'Despite the season we've had, I must stress that this club is in its best position in modern memory. We are strong in every area and we have made sure that our first foray in the Premier League will have lasting benefits for Huddersfield Town, such as the legacy that our improved training ground will give for years to come.'

Hoyle also backed Siewart to continue and insisted the board was 'fully behind Jan as the man to take us forward'.