Lack of solidity costly for Fulham as they miss out on chance to seal Premier League return

Marco Silva was left frustrated with the manner in which Fulham conceded their goals in their 2-1 defeat against Derby County at Pride Park.

Fabio Carvalho had put the Whites ahead before Luke Plange and a Tosin Adarabioyo own goal gave the Rams all three points.

Fulham would have wrapped up promotion if they had won the fixture at Pride Park.

Silva said: “It was two completely different halves. After the last home defeat I expected a result, and we did it in the first half.

“The way we started the game, the way we controlled the game, the way we created chances, it’s a very good example of the way we prepared the game. It’s good to see when things happen on a matchday.

“We had some more chances in the second half to score a second goal to probably kill the game or create a different scenario for ourselves.

“We made a mistake, which was really tough at the level we are. In the one moment you decided to jump to press the goalkeeper and after they beat the pressure we had to kill the moment, win the ball or make a tactical foul.

“It was too easy the way they beat the pressure in that moment and they equalised the game.

“We had the better chances, the most chances to win the game definitely. We have this obligation as well because we are top of the league for a reason and we had more chances, more shots, everything was more from ourselves but we lost the focus in three or four moments in the second half and they punished us.

“We are too soft in the goals we conceded. In the last two games we have conceded five goals that we will have to analyse and improve on because if you want to win football matches you have to be really solid as a team and in the two matches, we haven’t been.”