"Another tough Premier League game," - Marco Silva happy with solid away point
Marco Silva, Manager of Fulham during the Premier League match between Ipswich Town FC and Fulham FC at Portman Road on August 31, 2024 in Ipswich, England. (Photo by Paul Harding/Getty Images)

Fulham added another point to their Premier League tally on Saturday with a 1-1 draw away to Ipswich.

Liam Delap's early stunner for the hosts was cancelled out 17 minutes later by an Adama Traoré goal.

Fulham enjoyed more possession but Ipswich edged them in shots and arguably should have won the game.

Head coach Marco Silva was still happy with a solid performance from his Fulham side.

A solid point at a tough place to go

Ipswich have achieved consecutive promotions in the last two seasons, so want Portman Road to be a fortress.

Silva felt Fulham gave as good as they got in a game Ipswich would have wanted to impress.

"(It was a) tough Premier League game, as always, against a side that you know are going to be really tough to play against," he said.

"We know it can be tough to play here because last season we played against them in a different competition with great support from the home crowd."

An even match-up

Portman Road was rocking after new signing Liam Delap rifled a shot into the top corner after 15 minutes.

Silva felt his side should have done more to stop the goal but was happy with the reaction afterwards.

He said, "You can say it was a balanced game, both sides trying to get control of the game.

We should have done much better to be tight to Liam Delap driving the ball from the halfway line for their goal, but the reaction was good from us, and we scored a very good goal in an open play moment.

"From then, I think we did control the game with a clear chance from Rodrigo (Muniz) to score.

"(These are) moments that we have to be clinical, we have to build to be ruthless and to punish them in those types of situations."

Good at the back but Fulham lacked creativity upfront

Fulham arguably ended the first half as the better side, but Ipswich stopped them from playing to their best in the second period.

Delap, Omari Hutchinson, and Jack Clarke all came close to putting the Tractor Boys back in front.

Silva was frustrated with the way his team was shut out in the latter stages, but happy with their defensive stability.

He added: "We were solid in the second half, but not in the way that we like to play, not with that quality in our build-up and it was more difficult for us to create chances.

"There were all the defensive set pieces, a lot of situations there, and I think we were really solid, we were brave enough in those moments.

"It's a game, of course, that we wanted to win, we wanted the three points. We got one point, and we move on to prepare for the next one."