Fulham boss Mark Hughes paid tribute to opponents and former employers Blackburn for bringing the best out of his players on Saturday.
Rovers twice came from behind to cancel out two Damien Duff strikes, before Bobby Zamora’s late penalty secured a 3-2 home win for the Cottagers.
With Rovers deploying a route one tactic, Fulham never altered their style and their determination eventually got the better of a resilient Rovers display.
Hughes was thankful for that, and he aired his satisfaction with the result as his team stuck to their game-plan throughout.
“It was a difficult game today, Blackburn are a very strong side, I love their physicality and they kept us on our toes,” Hughes said.
“For long periods we weren’t able to play as we wanted to and that’s the pressure that Blackburn put us under, but we stuck to it and were determined to get the ball down and play our stuff.”
Duff opened the scoring against his old club before a deflected strike from Grant Hanley pulled Rovers level on the stroke of half-time.
Duff restored their advantage before the hour-mark, but Junior Hoilett levelled for Rovers once more before a debatable penalty decision paved the way for Fulham’s victory.
“We created a number of chances in the first half, converted one of them, and restricted Blackburn to very few,” said Hughes.
“[The] second half went back and forth, to and fro, and we really tried to keep momentum and I think we did that.
“I think we were brave, we wanted to play our stuff, and kept on creating chances and got our noses in front again.
“Thankfully, in the end, we got the benefit of a penalty decision and we’re pleased about that.
“But overall, the way we played and with the amount of chances we created in comparison to the opposition, I think we deserved to win.”
