BURNLEY midfield general Kevin Ball believes Fulham are serious promotion candidates, thanks to their increased goalpower.

Ball was part of the Fulham side that faded out of the play-off picture last season.

However, the Clarets summer signing believes they could have made it up with the help of a few more goals and now following the arrival of French under-21 international Louis Saha the League leaders look to have plugged the gap.

Ball said: "I was only there a matter of months as opposed to any great deal of time but I will honestly say I did thoroughly enjoy my time there.

"I was disappointed when Paul Bracewell got the sack but the powers that be make the decisions they feel are right.

"Whether or not I agree is a different matter.

"Jean Tigana took over and the lads have kicked on from there but I always felt for the love of scoring a few more goals last year we would have got promotion anyhow."

He added: "This year they seem to have started scoring goals and it makes a bit of a difference. They are top of the league with five out of five.

"Last year I thought we played a lot of good football. It was just for the lack of hitting the back of the net. In games we created a lot of chances and unfortunately it just wouldn't go in and then we'd probably go and lose to the sucker-punch.

"This year they seem to have scored a lot of goals and they've started well."

"It doesn't surprise me at all and I think they will be thereabous at the end of the season."