Silva laments Fulham's missed chances in United defeat

Marco Silva said he felt his Fulham side did enough to win today’s lunchtime clash with Manchester United despite wasting a number of good chances.

Bruno Fernandez’s last-minute strike won the match 1-0 for the Red Devils, who have now won seven consecutive matches at Craven Cottage.

As is so often the case with the early kick-offs, this game was lacking in quality at both ends.

Neither side was at the races in the first half and, although Fulham forced Andre Onana into a succession of fine saves in the second period, Fernandez popped up to win the game for under-pressure Erik ten Hag.

Speaking at his post-match press conference, Fulham boss Silva said: “The first half was not good (quality). They showed they do not to need to play really well for a top player like Bruno to punish the opposition.

"Second half we tried everything to win the game and I think we deserved to win it. Overall it was not an amazing game.

“It was much better in the second half. What we need to do to win, I think overall we did it but we did not put it in the net and that is important and in the end they punished us.”

A comedy of errors led to United’s winner, with a number of Fulham players having the opportunity to clear the ball but all failing to do so.

But Silva was in no mood to feel sorry for his players and felt they were not unlucky to lose.

He said: “It’s the same old story. We were not unlucky. You have to be there from the first second to the last.

“In the last moment in 10 seconds we made three or four mistakes with three or four different players and this is difficult to understand.

“The second half showed that we were in control but at the end we lost complete emotional control.

"First half was 50-50. United started better than us and of course in the second half we were the better team.

“The chances we created were enough for us to score. I am very pleased that we created what we created against Man United but this is a very tough one to take.

“It was our fault. We didn’t win the game because we didn’t take our chances.

"We always have to look at ways to improve. Now is not the time to talk about that. We have to work to get confidence and for these players to perform.”