Fulham boss explains why win at Millwall was such a key result in their campaign
Fulham manager Marco Silva reckons their 2-1 win at Millwall early in the Championship season was a ‘key’ one.
The Whites are five points clear at the top of the table and will look to extend their unbeaten league run to six matches.
Silva took charge in the summer following Scott Parker’s decision to quit for AFC Bournemouth.
The free-flowing west Londoners have scored 74 goals in 28 league matches.
Aleksandar Mitrovic and Fabio Carvalho scored at The Den on August 17 – the third Championship fixture of the season – with Benik Afobe cutting the arrears late on.
Silva said: “We came to play that match after a 5-1 win away from home at Huddersfield. Then we went to Millwall.
“It was one of the key points – and not just because we won the game 2-1. They scored later.
“The way we started that game, I remember talking about our standards before the match, that was a key moment that showed everything we are doing – and the way we want to play – is making sense.
“Of course every time you make a statement, winning a football match, can help you grow as a football team. That was a really important moment for us.
“It [Millwall] is definitely a tough game. They won’t need many things to create problems for the opposition side – the way they play they are normally really clinical on second moments and we have to be aware of that.”
Carvalho opened the scoring in Saturday’s FA Cup fourth round tie at Manchester City. The hosts went on to win 4-1 with Riyad Mahrez netting twice in the second period.
But Silva sees no reason for that reverse to dent confidence.
“Looking at our performance we should’ve taken more from the game,” he said. “The first half we can take many, many positives. We did a fantastic first half.
“We didn’t go there to just sit back and try to block their quality. We had the ball and created problems for them.”
PICTURES: KEITH GILLARD
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