Marco Silva told the press that his side were deserving of all three points after Fulham ran out 3-2 winners against Nottingham Forest on Friday night.
Forest took the lead early on in the first-half through Taiwo Awoniyi and the score remained 1-0 going into the break. However, a goal from Tosin turned the game on its head as that was followed by a rocket from João Palhinha and a first Fulham goal for Harrison Reed.
“I think we were the best team on the pitch and deserved the three points,” started Marco. “I think if we analysed the match, we deserved clearly the three points. The way we started the game, even after conceding the early goal, we came and took control of the match.
“The first time Nottingham went in our 18-yard box they won a corner and scored. We knew we made a mistake in that moment; we weren’t as aggressive as we should have been.
“We pushed them back, not really creating many chances. Within us, I believe in our offensive set-pieces that we could equalise the game.
“We had a chat at half-time to keep the same set up, but do it quicker, much more dynamic, much more aggressive on the ball, more speed in circulation, because after that I told them the space will appear.
“In the second half, much better. The way we won, the way we started the second goal as well, a great strike from João.
“It was nice to see the goals we scored. Even with the goals they scored, with the 3-2, we showed resilience in possession to keep control of the game, we kept it well and think we deserved clearly the three points.”
It was a ruthless six minutes of football that turned the tie around, after goals from the unlikely sources of Tosin, João Palhinha and Harrison Reed.
“The way we came back after half-time was really good,” said Marco. “I told our players at half-time, the last words for them were we have to show personality.
“We knew the type of team we were playing against, even if they come from a tough, tough defeat to Bournemouth.
“And we did it. We matched them and their situation. Losing 1-0 at half-time is not easy. We were ruthless.”
Marco gave particular praise to Harrison Reed, who finally scored his first goal for Fulham on Friday night, as well as praising João’s incredible strike just three minutes prior.
“It was nice to see Harrison score finally in the Fulham shirt,” said Marco. “The pressure on him has been really tough to score.
“He knows that I am always demanding different things from him in different areas of the pitch.
“Last season he had several chances to score and didn’t score but now he has finally scored.
“Great strike from João as well. To see our number six arriving to score that goal shows our philosophy, shows our ambition as a team as well and that is a fantastic thing as well.”
Not only did Marco give special praise to the goal scorers but Tim Ream too, who filled in as cover at left-back on the night and very much impressed from a very new position to him on the pitch.
“I don’t like to mention individual players but I have to mention Tim Ream.
“34-years-old, he’s been probably our best central defender so far and with the problems we have on our left-side, without Robinson and without (Layvin) Kurzawa as well, I didn’t have doubts to start him there as I knew he would show the class and the knowledge about the position definitely because the way he works every single day showed to me that he was able to do it He played really as a captain.”
