Silva: Fulham deserved cup win

Fulham boss Marco Silva felt his side fully deserved their Carabao Cup win over Tottenham.

And Silva says measures will be taken to ensure a farce which saw Kenny Tete being forced off the field to fetch a new boot from the dressing room do not happen again.

Tete, who scored the winning penalty in a shootout at Craven Cottage, raced down the tunnel 11 minutes into the second half after tearing his boot.

During his temporary absence, Spurs took full advantage to equalise through a Richarlison header after Fulham had gone ahead through a first-half Mickey Van de Ven own goal.

Silva felt his side deserved the win the game but was hugely frustrated as the hosts had squandered a host of good opportunities.

“For sure in the future we are going to approach it in a different way as we gave the opposition the chance to play against 10 men,” Silva said.

“It was the first and it will be the last time it happens.

“The referee should do what he did, which is to let the game go on, but we need to approach it in a different way.

“Now the players know what they should do in that moment. It was not the best and we are going to talk about it more because we have conceded a goal, but even if we had not, with more maturity we will do it in a different way.”

Fulham were the better side for much of the game, despite Silva making five changes from the side that drew at Arsenal, with Joao Palhinha, one of the five successful penalty takers, outstanding in midfield.

“We were the better side, we deserved to win, ” Silva said.

“From the first minute the players were on the front foot and the players executed the game plan well and the players understood the right moments to press.

“We didn’t let them settle and that was one of the key reasons we grew in confidence in the 97 minutes. We had the better chances to score and played better.”