Fulham Head Coach Marco Silva was calm and collected in his presser following his side's progression into the Fourth Round of the FA Cup on Saturday.
“We achieved the main goal for us, to keep playing in this competition.
"We give this competition all the respect it deserves.
"We had some problems during the last few weeks in preparation for the game,
After such a long break without competitive football for Silva's men, he knew there would have to be some rust to shake off to begin with.
"We knew it would be a tough game for us and them," said our Head Coach.
"We had a longer break and it showed to me during the match, some players struggled a little bit to keep playing in the high intensity 120 minutes.
"It was a typical FA Cup match, both teams trying to stay in the competition.
"There were chances for both teams to score. In one moment of the second half they had a little bit more control of the game and they had some chances.
"In extra time we were much better and we scored. We had chances, they had chances as well and of course we are happy with the result."
With another game now to squeeze into the already-packed schedule, Silva explained we'll just have to deal with it the best we can.
"It will be tough to schedule the games for us because we didn’t request to postpone any games, but the reality is that the last three were postponed," he said
"Even with some COVID cases we didn’t request that because we knew what was to come – every three days we will play a football match.
"Now with the next FA Cup match, we’ll have to find another date for the Middlesbrough match as well.
"But it is the reality – something we can’t control unfortunately – and we have to prepare our players in the best way we can."