Fulham manager Marco Silva blamed a lack of a winning mentality and individual errors for his team’s stumble at home to Coventry, when a win would have left them just three more points from promotion.
Fulham trailed at the break to goals from Michael Rose and Viktor Gyokeres – a set play and a goalkeeping error respectively – and although they pulled one back through substitute Bobby DeCordova-Reid, Callum O’Hare made sure of the win that Coventry deserved with a goal in added time.
It was the first time this season a team has done the double over the Cottagers.
“At this level it is tough but the winning mentality is about focus, concentration every time and this afternoon we lost the game because of individual mistakes,” Silva said.
“It was not tactical. All the chances they had came from individual mistakes and when you make these mistakes at this level it’s easy for them to create chances.”
He denied that his players had felt any added pressure with promotion in sight and insisted that they would go to Derby on Friday expecting to move three points closer to their target.
“I don’t see reasons to have more pressure today,” he said. “I don’t feel it. I hope our players don’t feel it either. It is our job, pressure is normal. We have to enjoy it a little bit, embrace the challenge and show the mentality every time, the right mentality at certain moments.
“I’m confident next Friday we will go to Derby and fight for the three points and to be better than Derby and do our best to win the match.”
Coventry boss Mark Robins was full of praise for his team’s courage in taking the game to Fulham as well as standing up to the home side’s attacking power.
“Today that was up there with the performances of the season,” he said.
“It was the first time we’ve beaten a top-10 team away from home, never mind a team that is going to be champions, so it should give us confidence and belief. But the way that we played, with bravery, courage and quality that we showed, we created chances off the quality we showed and we took them.
“The positioning of our defenders was very good against the top striker in the Championship. We kept them at bay until and the 82nd minute and had the confidence to break out again.
“There was no panic in the back line or midfield. We were outstanding and we had to be against the top team. They put real quality into the box but the way we handled it was it was a brilliant, not just the three points but the performance on top of that.”
