Marco Silva professed himself pleased with ‘a good performance’ after Fulham beat Nottingham Forest to make it three pre-season wins in a row.

Harry Wilson scored twice in the space of four first-half minutes to put the Whites in command before Andreas Pereira ended any chance of a Forest comeback with an assured finish from Sasa Lukic’s cross just before the hour.

Silva told FFCTV afterwards:

“It was a good performance. It was difficult [with] the pitch and the weather. Of course, if you see better conditions I really believe that the game is going to be more intense and the ball is going to run quicker, with quicker decisions from the players. [There were] two different halves … completely under control in the first one, we showed the patience and played most of the game in our attacking third.”

The Fulham head coach hailed an excellent display from Wilson, who he said was gaining immediate benefit from ten days of ‘hard work’ and a ‘professional approach’.

“Two great goals from Harry Wilson. The first one [was] a top ball from Calvin [Bassey], a great move from him [Wilson] and top finishing. It was a good, direct free-kick from him, too. Our control of the game was very good [in the] first half. In the second half, we controlled well in different circumstances. We scored a very good goal, too, a very good moment from us, with a good move on the right hand side and a great movement from Andreas [Pereira] as well.”

Silva downplayed the significance of Fulham’s comfortable win against Premier League opposition – highlighting how Nuno Espirito Santo had played several under-21 players in the first half.

“The result is not the main thing in pre-season. But it is a chance for us to build. To build the players from a physical point of view, to keep adjusting things from a tactical point of view that are very important for us. We have to move on. It is so early in pre-season. We were playing in the first half against a very young Nottingham Forest side, with probably seven or eight players who will probably not be part of their squad. Of course, it is good for us to look and see what we did well, but their squad will change and hopefully ours will be strengthened [soon] as well.

We are going to have another game next Wednesday. It is an important moment for us to be all together and do a different types of things that we normally don’t do at the training ground. You have time to create the togetherness you need in the team and it is a moment for our players to show the resilience in the very hot weather for us to work very well together.”