His footballing talents once won his dad a £10,000 wager, and now Ryan Tunnicliffe has another red hot tip – Fulham are staying up.

The Manchester-born midfielder is best known for a £100 bet placed by his dad in 1983, when Ryan was nine, that he would one day play for the Man United first team.

When Tunnicliffe came on for the first of only two substitute appearances for United, in a Carling Cup win over Newcastle in September 2012, his dad won his money back 100 times over.

Following loan spells with Peterborough, Barnsley and Ipswich, the 22 year old joined Fulham a year ago, but was soon shipped out on loan again to Wigan following Rene Meulensteen's sacking.

In the money: Tunnicliffe earns his dad a windfall by making his Man United debut

He started this season with a further loan spell at Blackburn but was recalled by Fulham in January and has since become an almost permanent fixture of Kit Symons' side, featuring in 13 of the last 14 games.

He said: “I think we will stay up. The performances have been good lately, and we were unlucky not to get even a point tonight (in the 1-0 defeat at Watford).

“Look at how we performed on Saturday (Fulham beat title-chasing Derby 2-0). If we go out and play without fear like that every week, we will get the breaks we didn't get tonight.

“There is definitely a confidence amongst the boys and a feeling that we will be okay. We are a young squad, but guys like me are learning all the time off the older players.

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“It was obviously good to hear that Millwall lost too, which keeps the gap between us, but we have to just concentrate on our own games and not worry about what others are doing.”

A father is always going to be the biggest supporter of any son of his, but has Mick Tunnicliffe even more of a fan since his son's United cameo landed him a whopping windfall? Not a bit of it, inssists Ryan.

He added: “As far as I'm concerned, I've not repaid my dad enough for all the time and petrol money he spent taking me around to matched when I was a kid.”

Keep your eyes fixed on GetWestLondon for all the action and reaction to Fulham's game against Bournemouth tomorrow night.