Marco Silva hails Fulham’s ‘winning mentality’ after 7-0 drubbing of Blackburn

Marco Silva praised Fulham’s “winning mentality” after they inflicted a 7-0 thrashing on 10-man Blackburn.

The free-scoring Cottagers were two goals up within 20 minutes through Neeskens Kebano and top scorer Aleksandar Mitrovic’s 19th goal of the campaign. Jan Paul Van Hecke’s dismissal for a reckless challenge ended the game as a contest after 30 minutes.

Fulham ruthlessly hammered home their advantage, scoring five in the second half through a stylish Harry Wilson brace, a second goal for Kebano, before a quickfire double from substitute Rodrigo Muniz in the final 10 minutes.

Silva was delighted with his side’s mentality after their sixth win in seven closed the gap on Bournemouth at the top to two points.

He said: “We know we won’t win all the matches but I don’t want to see any steps back like last month, because the winning mentality, and consistency is everything we’re trying to achieve.

“We showed that. I told our players at half-time, we have to keep going. We scored two goals. Started the game really well, efficiently. Had two chances and scored two goals.

“Very first moment, our first goal. Second goal, one moment that we prepared was to exploit that spot in the box, and we did fantastically.

“After the red card, against 10 players, we were really serious. I told our players that we have to keep the winning mentality and what we did in the second half means that.

“Scoring more goals, respecting them of course. But the best way to respect them, ourselves and our fans is to keep doing this to good teams.

“We have a lot of confidence in ourselves.”

It was a humbling night for Tony Mowbray, who witnessed Blackburn’s heaviest ever home defeat.

He said: “The first two were very poor to concede, I have to say. It’s been a long time I’ve seen us concede one like the second, a corner into the six-yard box, headed straight in.

“That just hasn’t happened to us for a long time. Listen, like I said, it’s not the time for me to sit here and pore over it.

“Generally, that is not the team you see when you support Blackburn Rovers. I think it’s the second time in the year we’ve lost by more than one.

“If it was a common theme that we were losing three, four, five on a regular basis, you’d see the soft underbelly of the team.

“But I don’t think that’s the case. This team deserves a little bit more credit but on a night like tonight, there’s no credit. We have to accept it. We have to put it behind us very quickly.”