Fulham stretch lead at the top after Kebano and Wilson see off Blackburn

  • 3/5/2022
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Marco Silva has said Fulham’s focus is on clinching promotion, not breaking records, as his side moved another step closer towards securing an immediate return to the Premier League. Neeskens Kebano and Harry Wilson scored before half-time, taking Fulham’s tally to 84 goals, 15 short of Reading’s Championship-era record of 99 set in the 2005-6 campaign. The hosts almost capped the victory in style when full-back Neco Williams struck the bar with a spectacular shot from halfway in the final stages. “We’re not here to break records. We don’t look at that,” said Silva. “We have a clear aim, which you all know, and the rest of it will come along.” Aleksandar Mitrovic has already set a Championship record of 34 goals. “It’s fantastic for us,” said Silva. “If you take the goals from Mitrovic away, maybe we are [still] the second- or third-best attack in this league.” Silva was in no doubt about the significance of the success over fellow promotion contenders. “It is really important,” he said. “It was not a final for us at all but a clash against a contender. We knew before the match we could create a bigger gap to them. “We won the game clearly in my opinion. We kept a clean sheet; that is fantastic for us to show the consistency that I want to see in our team. “We deserved to be two up at half-time but got a bit sloppy in the second half. There are things we have to keep working on and keep improving.” The Blackburn manager, Tony Mowbray, believes his side paid a heavy price for individual mistakes. Thomas Kaminski fumbled Williams’s shot to allow Kebano to follow up and put Fulham ahead after 25 minutes. Mowbray said the goalkeeper should have been quicker off his line to snuff out the danger when Wilson was sent clear before adding the second goal 10 minutes later. “We obviously suffered from the mistakes that we made,” Mowbray said. “The goalkeeper really fumbled the first one. You should be collecting that no problem. It wasn’t as if it was a fantastic opportunity and a great chance. “The second one he has to come and deal with it as well. All week he’s been outside his box and sweeping them things up and then he decides to go backwards and it’s frustrating for us and frustrating for him because he’s been fantastic this year. “So it’s not ideal when you come to a place as difficult as this and you shoot yourself in the foot.” Mowbray added: “We are capable of beating any team in this league. We need to win about five of our last [11] games to get into the play-offs.”

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