FULHAM boss Marco Silva singled out keeper Bernd Leno for praise after admitting his side weren’t at their best in today’s 1-0 win at Everton.
Leno made several vital stops to deny the wasteful Toffees, who paid the price when substitute Bobby De Cordova-Reid grabbed what proved to be the winning goal in the 73rd minute.
In fact it was a trio of substitutes involved in the decisive strike with Aleksandar Mitrovic feeding Andreas Pereira, who then provided the low delivery for an unmarked De Cordova-Reid to tap home.
The result may have been harsh on Everton, but Silva was delighted afterwards to be heading home from his former club with an unlikely three points.
He told Sky Sports: “I’m very pleased for the result. I cannot hide that how important it is for us to start winning (in the) Premier League away from home, even more at Goodison.
“We know what it means to play at Goodison for the first game of the season – the crowd was big and they wanted the home team on the front foot. We started well in the game in the first 15 minutes.
“After we lost some balls and gave a big boost for them. They created some chances.
“In the first half I have to say we gave so many chances for them on the counter attack to punish us, something that is not normal in our team.
“Not the best position from our full-backs when we had the ball and some wrong decisions on the ball as well that gave them the chance.”
Silva added: “Bernd (Leno) was at the top level this afternoon – what a performance from him.
“Even so, we created some chances as well but we were better second half I have to say.
“The second half was much more everything under control. We created more chances as well.
“They had their chances as well. It was a great goal from ourselves, an open play moment from ourselves, a great combination and that we scored but that is football.”
Silva also revealed afterwards he wasn’t feeling particularly confident going into the game after a far from ideal pre-season.
He explained: “I knew before the match, I didn’t mention to our players, but I knew it would be a tough game for us because we are not at our top level.
“Our pre-season was really strange. We started this afternoon with two players that had played 45 minutes, 90 minutes just in pre-season.
“The players that came in they started recovering from injury as well. It is not an easy process for us in the last five or six weeks but we have to keep working.
“It is a good feeling when even if we don’t perform at our level. It was probably not one of the best performances since I joined Fulham away from home, but even so I want to win a football match like we did and it was a very good sign.”
One of the main issues behind the scenes this summer has been speculation about whether Mitrovic would quit the club for Saudi Arabia.
The Serbian striker was named on the bench with summer signing Raul Jimenez given the nod to start up front, although the Cottagers boss added this was always the plan today.
“As you know, Mitro didn’t do all the pre-season with his team-mates,” said Silva.
“Of course we knew that he is not going to be ready for the 90 minutes.
“We planned for him to come on for 30/45 minutes.
“That was the plan for the game, him and Andreas Pereira. It was nice to see them involved in the goal we scored.
“It was nice to see them coming back because we need them at the top level.”
