Fulham coach Marco Silva felt that Fulham were good value for victory against Millwall, despite not being at their fluent best.
After growing into the game, we took a lead into the break courtesy of an Aleksandar Mitrovic strike, and sealed things after the restart through the Serb’s 30th goal of the season and a Bobby De Cordova-Reid tap-in.
“The beginning of the match we started a little bit slow,” Silva admitted. “We started the game like we prepared, to try and control the game.
“We knew before the match they would make counter attacks, with direct balls and second balls.
“We must be able to deal with that individual challenge that they like to play. It is a derby, and always the derbies are special games.
“We didn’t do so often the quality we must – we did it once and we scored a goal. Second half we start to change the position of some players in certain moments of the game.
“We put Fabio in a different line as well to try and create a bit more behind their midfielders.
“We deserved the three points. Winning and keeping a clean sheet is important for us.”
It was the first time the Whites had prevented the opposition from scoring since our 7-0 win in Reading, a habit Marco was pleased to see us get back into.
“It is really important,” he explained. “We’ve achieved fantastic scores, 7-0 and 6-2 twice, 3-2 against Stoke as well.
“We’d scored 22 goals in four games, but at the same time we have conceded six. Sometimes we will have to win games 1-0.
“It is so important for us to keep a clean sheet. We have to be more mature and consistent as a team. The two biggest chances that they had, we cannot allow them to have.
“It is always a boost for us when we win a match with a clean sheet, and Marek played a big part in this clean sheet tonight.”
There were beautiful scenes at full-time in the Hammersmith End, as Marco and his players went over to embrace the family of the late Paul Parish.
“We knew it would be an emotional match for us after what happened in our stadium 10 days ago,” our Head Coach said. “We knew it would be a special and emotional match for us.
“It is the minimum we can do for them. It was definitely an emotional game for us.
“Whether we played well or not, we had to win this match, to give this good feeling for the family.
“The family were able to come here to see us tonight and sit in the same place. They are part of this football club. We are here to help them in everything they need.”