Silva not interested in record breaking as he eyes the Premier League

Posted Sunday, March 06, 2022 by PA

Marco Silva insists Fulham’s focus is on clinching promotion – not breaking records.

Silva’s side moved one step closer towards securing a return to the Premier League following a 2-0 victory over Blackburn at Craven Cottage.

Neeskens Kebano and Harry Wilson scored before the break to secure the three points taking Fulham’s season tally to 84 goals – 15 short of Reading’s Championship record of 99 goals set in the 2005-6 campaign.

But Fulham boss Silva said: “To be honest, we’re not here to break records. We don’t look at that.

“We have a clear aim, which you all know, and the rest of it will come along.”

Striker Aleksandar Mitrovic has already set a new Championship record of 34 goals.

And Silva added: “It’s fantastic for us to have Mitrovic with 34 goals and breaking the record.

“If you take the goals from Mitrovic away, maybe we are the second or third best attack in this league. That is the philosophy of ourselves.

“I must congratulate the players for that – but the records are not important for us.”

Silva was in no doubt about the significance of the victory over fellow promotion contenders.

He said: “It is really important. It was not a final for us at all. But we have a clash against the contender. And we knew before the match we could create a bigger gap to them.

“And we won the game clearly in my opinion. And we kept a clean sheet that is fantastic for us show the consistency that I want to see in our in our team.

“We deserved to be two up at half time but got a bit sloppy in the second half.

“There are things we have to keep working on and keep improving.”

Blackburn manager Tony Mowbray believes his side paid a heavy price for individual mistakes.

Goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski fumbled Neco Williams’s 25th minute shot to allow Kebano to follow up and put Fulham ahead.

And the manager also believed the keeper should have been quicker off his line to snuff out the danger when Wilson was sent clear before adding the 35th minute second.

Mowbray said: “I think we obviously suffered from the mistakes that we made today.

“The goalkeeper really fumbled the first one. You should be collecting that no problem. It wasn’t as if it was a fantastic opportunity and a great chance it was just a fumble from the goalie.

“The second one he has to come and deal with it as well. All week he’s been outside his box and just sweeping them things up and then he decides to go backwards and it’s frustrating for us and frustrating for him because he’s been fantastic this year.

“So it’s not ideal when you come to a place as difficult as this and you shoot yourself in the foot.”

He added: “I think we are capable of beating any team in this league. We need to win about five of our last games to get into the play-offs.”