Silva delights in Carvalho and another dominant Fulham performance - Millwall reaction

Marco Silva praised Fabio Carvalho after the youngster turned in his best performance so far for the Whites in a 2-1 derby win at Millwall.

The 18-year-old was a class apart at the Den on Tuesday night, scoring one and laying on the opener and he might have had two more goals. He was full of guile, energy and vision and away fans were left in raptures, chanting his name during and after the match.

"He's fantastic," said Fulham's boss after a victory which kept his team on top of the table.

"It's something that he's doing since pre-season. He started well the competition [Championship]. Against Boro [on the opening day] he did a good game. But it's not just him. Every single game that we are playing, we are playing better, achieving better things. The team is being more consistent.

"He looks fresh every time - not just with the ball, because he did fantastic work without the ball as well and did everything we were asking of him.

"He's a player showing very good things and it's up to me to keep giving the right information for him and for him to keep his feet on the floor because it's a long journey for him to go and we give him the first steps. There will be days not so good as today when he has to answer in the right way.

"If we want to play with this intensity as we did here we have to work this way as well in training because nothing comes without work before and he has this during the training sessions."

Looking back on a dominant win - a late goal for the Lions made for a tighter final score than it should have been - Silva added: "I'm really pleased, not just because we won the game but because we showed character, personality and very good quality. The players are learning fast and doing what we're asking them.

"We were the dominant team on the pitch and we created so many chances to score more.

"Last time we scored five [at Huddersfield] and we should have scored more than two but I'm really pleased with the way we controlled the game. Our opponents had maybe two shots, nothing more.

"After a really unlucky goal that we conceded, we still controlled the game well and we deserved the three points."

Lions boss Gary Rowett conceded Fulham made life very difficult for his team.

"I was disappointed with the two goals and, until about 75 minutes, the performance of the team," he said. "Fulham gave us a real lesson in movement, work-rate and quality - they're a fabulous side.

"At some point you have to force the issue. We tried to do that in a more direct way in the second half and make it more physical, but they make it really difficult for you to create any sort of momentum in attack.

"I thought we showed character in the latter stages of the game. Maybe it's the goal that gives you belief but I'd like to have seen a little of that belief when we conceded two early goals."