Fulham head coach Marco Silva was delighted that the league leaders weathered a tricky start to ruthless exploit Ryan Manning’s dismissal in tonight’s 5-1 win at Swansea.
The Portuguese boss admitted that Manning’s red card – for a reckless tackle on Harry Wilson just before half time – was the game’s pivotal moment, with Swansea looking set to pose real problems for the Championship’s pace setters in an even first period. Silva told FFCTV after the final whistle:
“Really important. A very good result, impressive score again but it was a tough game. They started better than us, definitely. They created some problems for us in the way they beat our first pressure. They didn’t create many chances, but we didn’t stick with our plan to deal with it. We started to control it better after the first fifteen minutes. The red card made a big impact on the game – and eleven against ten, of course I knew that we would create problems for them, space would appear and that we would score.
It was good that we scored straight – in one moment of pressure and in the first minute of the second half. It was possible that we should have performed better in the second half, but it is difficult to play three times in a week. The main thing is to achieve three points. I know that the result is impressive, 5-1 away again, but as a performance the players know that we have the ability to do better.
Scoring in the first minute of the second half was key. We made a great impact straightaway. It was a key moment in the game – the red card was as well. I believe that before that there was a penalty on Fabio that looked clear, but overall we deserved the three points. We are an impressive run and creating the mentality to win and win and win again is really important.”
Silva had words of praise for right back Nico Williams, whose late double gave the scoreline a more emphatic look.
“He deserved it – after that fantastic moment he had last Saturday when he almost scored an amazing goal. He scored an important goal and the second one is an amazing goal from him. He’s a young lad, who has settled really well in our squad. He is working really hard, the competition is hard for him but he deserved it.”
