Marco Silva praised his players for providing the perfect response to questions about Fulham’s promotion credentials by thrashing Reading 7-0 tonight.

The Fulham head coach was delighted with his team’s ruthlessness, contrasting this seven-goal showing with the one achieved last year at Blackburn when the home side had been reduced to ten men before half time. Silva told his post-match press conference:

“It is not a normal score. We repeat it. It is not a normal score, but it was a consequence of the game. The last game that we did it, we did it with superiority on the pitch, ten against eleven for sixty minutes and tonight was a little bit different because it was eleven against eleven.

Of course, after the second goal, there was half-time and after with our third goal, things were really difficult for them and we kept the same intensity and same pace, including long periods of the match, which is a good sign for me as a manager after a long break for some of these players without a game in their legs and it was good, it was a good score, a good result for us. The most important thing for us is the three points and of course, after the goals came at the end, it was a consequence from our game.”

Silva played down the goal glut – insisting that he had told the players that this was just another three points and he was most pleased by the quality of Fulham’s display having waited nearly three weeks to respond to their defeat at the hands of Sheffield United.

“I think it an important score, but it is just three points. I told my players that then. We are happy, we need this type of performance, we need goals, we need to boost the confidence for our front line, the defenders. All these situations are important for us but at the end, it is just three points. After the Sheffield United match, we want to play as quick as possible because it was our first defeat in 12 games. We were 11 games unbeaten and that defeat for us was tough and unfortunately for us, we had three games cancelled and we want to play as soon as possible.”