With Jean Tigana's side now seemingly poised on the verge of promotion to the Premiership, they face the ultimate test of their progress against United in the FA Cup third round.

Although Danish international Goldbaek, who played against United in the FA Cup for the Blues the season before last, knows the odds are stacked against them, he still believes there is hope of an upset.

"Of course we have a chance as we have so much confidence and we are the leaders of the First Division," he said.

"United are the big favourites, they have many world-class players, they are by far the best team in the Premier League and there is a big gap.

"But I still think you can close that gap if you can give 100% on the day and they have an off-day.

"Our strengths are that we are technically a good team for the First Division. Now we'll see whether that's good enough for the Premier League as well. We have created a lot of goals this season as well.

"The team has improved a lot since I joined, but the club has grown as well. You can see that everything is growing here every day.

"At the moment, Chelsea are still years ahead of us but we're doing quite well here. We should just try to get promoted and make sure everything else is well prepared to survive there."

Goldbaek paid tribute to the impact which manager Jean Tigana has had at Craven Cottage since his arrival last summer.

"Of course, he has had a big influence since he came as it is nearly the same team that we had last year, with maybe five or six new players," he added.

"Everybody is just so much better than they were last season and that is down to confidence. You can't buy confidence though, you have to earn it in training.

"His training was very good pre-season. Then we started so well and from then on, it's continued."