Marco Silva admitted that Fulham’s dodgy defending meant he was unable to savour an entertaining FA Cup tie with Sunderland.

The Whites looked like being on the end of an upset after Jack Clarke punished Issa Diop’s error to give the Black Cats an early lead and it took a moment of magic from captain Tom Cairney to rescue a replay for the Premier League outfit.

The Fulham head coach told his post-match press conference:

“It was an intense game, a typical FA Cup match. We were more dominant, to be honest that was our obligation, but I believe the game was too broken, for me as a manager, to enjoy. We conceded a cheap goal, gave a goal to them. We created a scenario where we were being more dominant, pushing them back, and showing the quality to break their organisation and create some chances.

Overall in the game, I think we have created enough chances to score more goals. But in the other side, I think we gave many, many moments for them as well. In some moments we gave the ball away so easily, and in some duels, some challenges, we have to be much more aggressive to not let them create the spaces. We lost some important challenges, and that was the part of the game that I really didn’t like. I think the space between our backline and our midfielders was too big in some moments.

That space there between the lines, we gave many times for the shots for the striker to connect, when [Amad] Diallo received behind our two midfielders, and in that situation they created some moments, more than just moments on the counter-attack. They have that quality in those areas, but it’s something that we clearly have to improve on and do much better.

We were not able to win and to go through this evening, so what we couldn’t do this afternoon, we have to do in 10 days. We had the chance in 90 minutes to do it. We didn’t, and now we have to in 10 or 15 days”.