Marco Silva wants Fulham to be more consistent despite win over Millwall

Posted Wednesday, February 09, 2022 by PA

Fulham head coach Marco Silva called for his side to be even more consistent despite a 3-0 win over Millwall.

Two goals for Aleksandar Mitrovic and one for Bobby De Cordova-Reid rounded off a win that puts the Craven Cottage side eight points clear at the top of the Championship.

Despite the scoreline, Millwall showed promising moves against the Fulham backline.

Silva admitted that for his side to progress further, they would need to be more comfortable defending.

He said: “We must improve and be more consistent for the whole game, it’s something we’re working on. But we were the best team on the pitch.

“Keeping a clean sheet was really important for us, it was nice to have that feeling again.

“After the second goal we dropped a little bit of our intensity.

“We started the match slowly, and we did not have the quality at the beginning to play.

“We started to control the game, we know we had to deal with direct balls and second balls.”

Fulham took the lead just before the half-hour mark. Harry Wilson passed to Neco Williams who was able to make his way to the by-line.

A cross back into the box took a kind deflection for Mitrovic, who was able to finish from close range, for his 29th league goal this season.

Fulham notably livened up after their opener, and doubled the lead five minutes after the restart.

After a period of pressure following a corner, where the ball found itself in a sea of bodies, Fabio Carvalho was able to connect to force Bartosz Bialkowski into a parry.

Mitrovic netted his second of the evening when he was first to the loose ball, turning past the shot-stopper.

Home keeper Marek Rodak blocked a Jed Wallace effort before Mason Bennett turned the resulting rebound wide of the post.

Any Millwall hope of a comeback was extinguished four minutes from time, when a run down the wing by Wilson found Carvalho, who laid off into the path of De Cordova-Reid to finish from close range.

Millwall manager Gary Rowett believed his side performed well.

He said: “We performed really well for large parts of the game, we made the best side in the division with the best attacking quality a little bit uncomfortable.

“If you take their third goal out, because it was two yards offside, it was clear. Those are the moments.

“At 2-0 we have some absolute glaring chances. If we take them, then we get a chance at least of getting something out of the game.

“There were large bits of it that were really promising. We haven’t had the points we’ve warranted. But it’s the Championship.”