Fulham manager Marco Silva was very upset that Fulham did not take advantage of their situations in Sunday’s Emirates FA Cup Fifth Round defeat to Southampton.
24 attempts on goal to the visitors’ five makes it look like a smash and grab by the Saints in their 1-0 win, but the openings they did fashion were of a very decent calibre.
And so there was no hiding Silva’s anguish post-match, as the opportunity to play in a second domestic Quarter-Final this season passed the Whites by.
“Very bad day for us – myself, the football players, mainly for our fans, definitely,” he said. “The expectations were in the level that, in my opinion, they should be, they must be. And we were not good enough. Simple as that.
“We can talk about many different things – we had 24 shots, and we didn't create enough after 24 shots, we were around their box many, many times, inside their box.
“But the reality with football is you have to create clearcut chances when you have this amount of offensive game that we had. And the reality is that we were not good enough in the other part of the game, too.
“They had five shots all game, and in most of those moments they created chances. And for us, it's just a sign that we were not really close to the standards that we have to be, in terms of defensive transition, reactions when you lose the ball, and some other things that are important for us.
“Probably not the moment to be so emotional and, to be clear, very bad day for us, as a group, always myself in front of this group of players, and for the football club.
“It’s probably a moment for us to look even deeper, because it cannot be just another defeat. I know that in football, the defeats, they are tough, doesn't matter where and who you play. We lost a big chance.
“When you have the responsibility to be favourites, to be in the Quarter-Finals next round, to be playing with a draw that gave us a chance to play at home against a very good side of the Championship, and we didn't play the way we should to win the game.”