Roy Hodgson has warned Fulham supporters excited by the prospect of watching European football next season to be careful about what they wish for.

A fortnight after Fulham's shock win over Premier League leaders Manchester United, Hodgson is tomorrow hoping to cause another major upset in the title race by defeating Liverpool at Craven Cottage.

Victory over Rafael Benitez's resurgent side could lift Fulham as high as seventh in the table, which at the end of the season will almost certainly be good enough to earn a place in the new Europa Cup competition.

Considering that barely 11 months ago they escaped relegation by the slimmest margin of goal difference, the transformation in Fulham's fortunes under Hodgson has been remarkable.

Buoyed by a team that combine a neat passing game with high work-rate, some fans are now taking Europe so seriously that they've started consulting easyJet timetables.

These are heady days and it is easy to forget that Hodgson has worked his magic with such a small squad that four players - Mark Schwarzer, Simon Davies, Aaron Hughes and Danny Murphy - have started every League game.

But while others are getting carried away, Hodgson chooses to take a more pragmatic view.

He said: "We've got to be careful that we don't start raising expectations so high that, like a balloon, we're going to blow and blow and blow and instead of the balloon getting bigger, it might just burst on us.

"It is important that expectations are kept at a level that we feel comfortable and confident we can reach. At the start of the season I thought we could survive in the Premier League and my goal was to do it much more comfortably.

"What I dreamt of - a good season in which we entertained the fans - is close to fruition now. If we can kick on, then great. But instead of always looking upwards, people should learn from what has happened to Charlton and it's not looking good for Norwich either."

Hodgson is one of the game's rare realists. He believes the credibility of the Premier League is not necessarily weakened by having Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal contest the title season after season.

According to Hodgson, simply maintaining Premier League status should be akin to winning a championship for most clubs. "No one wants to leave this paradise," he said. "And anyway, I think the League is sufficiently competitive that all the lower teams will play the top four believing they can win.

"We beat Manchester United and the people at Liverpool know they'll have to perform well to get a result."

Hodgson, a 61-year-old whose experience of coaching in Europe probably exceeds that of every other English-born manager, is sceptical that salary caps and quotas would make the League more of a level playing field.

"I would still see the top four dominating," he said. But he added: "I do think the current recession is quite useful in that it will force football clubs to look very closely at not over-spending.

"It might force us all to be a little more satisfied with what we've got. Because it is better to survive, keeping the team in the League, than stretching for that place in Europe and finding yourself in administration two years later. For us, if we play well and finish seventh and that means playing in Europe, then fine. But it's not something I dream about. I'd be more interested in finishing seventh because I could say only six teams in the League were better.

"Playing in Europe could stretch our resources and next year, come May we could find ourselves looking over our shoulder fighting relegation."

And nobody associated with Fulham wants to go down that route again.

Hodgson has no injury worries and hopes to field the same starting line-up that beat United 2-0 tomorrow.