Fulham manager Marco Silva heaped praise on Raul Jimenez as the striker became the highest scoring Mexican in Premier League history following his brace in Fulham’s 2-2 draw with Ipswich Town.
Jimenez scored his 54th and 55th Premier League goals in the draw with the Tractor Boys, converting twice from the penalty spot to overtake Javier Hernández as the English top tier’s highest-scoring Mexican player.
“It’s an incredible achievement,” said Silva in his post-match press conference. “I’m really pleased for him because we all know he had a really bad moment [with his head injury], not just in his career but in his life. He was really down when we signed him, but we showed trust in him and it’s paying off.
“The first two or three months at the club, he was not scoring and everyone was asking why we took the decision to bring him into the football club. We kept trusting him, he kept working really hard and it’s so nice to see him achieve an incredible number.
“It’s an honour for him to achieve these numbers and he will be in Premier League history for many, many years. Let’s hope there’s much more to come from him and I’m here to help him.
“It’s not just the goals today. The way he won fouls; the way he was always there to help the team. We changed his position in the second-half and he did really well. Let’s hope he can get even more confidence in the future.”
Jimenez’s stoppage-time penalty rescued a point for Fulham as Silva’s side made it eight Premier League games unbeaten.
The boss was disappointed to not take all three points at the Cottage but praised the fighting spirit of the side.
“We have to be disappointed with our performance, definitely,” he said. “It was a very good first 30 minutes. We were the team in control and we had two or three clear chances to score, one with Raul, which was a great save from the goalkeeper.
“We didn’t give up many chances for them. With [Liam] Delap and [Sammie] Szmodics, they have players on the attacking line who are quick and can create moments around the box, but the reality is that before 1-0, they didn’t.
“We lost control of the game when we went behind 1-0. We were too soft with the way we defended that moment. It’s a mistake from us and they scored.
“The fighting spirit was there. Even in difficult circumstances with some decisions going against us, they showed the character. If somebody has to win the game, it should be ourselves.
We created more chances, we were more on the front foot and we did everything apart from score more goals than Ipswich, so we have to be disappointed to not win the game.”