Marco Silva praises ‘important' Harry Wilson after Fulham winner at Brentford
Marco Silva says Harry Wilson will 'want to play Brentford every week' after he stung the Bees for a second time this season with the winner in Fulham's 3-2 west London derby victory at the Gtech Community Stadium.
Wilson, who had his contract extended until next summer this week and also scored a stoppage-time double in Fulham's 2-1 win over Brentford in November, replicated his heroics with a stunning long-range strike in the 70th minute.
Raul Jimenez's opener put the visitors ahead before Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo both scored their 19th goals of the Premier League campaign.
Mbeumo had a chance to claim his 20th but his first-half penalty was saved by Bernd Leno.
Tom Cairney came off the bench to nod in the equaliser moments before Wilson added the Cottagers' third.
'He's an important player and a very good player for us,' Silva said of Wilson.
'Of course the feeling for him against Brentford is fantastic and he's probably thinking right now, 'why don't I play against Brentford every week?'.
'We knew we could do it today in a special game and in a derby. Their frontline has nearly 50 goals in the Premier League. We knew we had to be strong to be in control of the situation.'
Both sides' European hopes were dented on Saturday by Crystal Palace's FA Cup victory over Manchester City, which means eighth spot will no longer secure a Conference League place.
Fulham's win over their neighbours means their 54-point tally is a new club record in the Premier League.
'It's something this group must be proud of, it was one of our goals of the season,' Silva added.
'It's something we wanted to achieve two seasons ago when we were close, we have different goals but that was one of the main ones because we knew that if we broke the record then we would be in a position to fight for things.'
Defeat ended Brentford's four-match winning run.
Asked whether his side deserved more, boss Thomas Frank said: 'Yes, definitely but unfortunately it's football.'
'Our first half was one of our better from this season. We controlled the game and had some good chances and had half opportunities when winning it high and going for the kill.
'I don't think there was two goals in it in the second half. It's small margins, they're two deflected crosses which landed perfectly on Jimenez and Cairney's head.'
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