Marco Silva was delighted to come away from the Riverside Stadium with all three points tonight as Fulham ended Middlesbrough’s four and a half month unbeaten run.
Serbian striker Aleksandar Mitrovic headed in the decisive goal – his 38th of the season – but the league leaders had to weather a serious Middlesbrough onslaught in the final fifteen minutes to emerge victorious. The Fulham head coach told his post-match press conference:
“[It was a] tough match, really tough match for us, as we expected. In my opinion, from what I have analysed of Boro, the quality they have, it will be the toughest match for the rest of the season. They are strong at home, always a fantastic atmosphere behind them to push and support them.
The first half, we started really well. In the first fifteen minutes, we are Fulham Football Club on the pitch. We are dominant, we started on the front foot. We expected a higher pressure from them in the beginning of the match, against all the teams here, they wait a bit more, and against us they respected us. But we are dominant, in the first ten or fifteen minutes with a different decision in attack, we could create more chances to score.
In the second half, they were more dominant, they created more problems for us. But we are clinical, we had a fantastic goal from Mitro from a set-piece. After, we had a very good chance probably to kill the game from Bobby Reid. After that, they had two or three chances to equalise. We are clinical in the second half, my players deserve it.”
Silva saluted Fulham’s desire to secure a precious three points in the second half.
In terms of our togetherness, our team spirit, when I saw Mitrovic running back and helping the team, Kebano, Harry, Bobby, Fabio as well, showed the togetherness in our team. Sometimes we have to win games playing so well, like we have so far, in other moments we have to play the ugly part of the game. They did it, it is fantastic for us.”
