Marco Silva and Thomas Frank have heaped praise on their Fulham and Brentford teams after they were involved in a five-goal thriller at Craven Cottage, the home side eventually prevailing by a 3-2 scoreline.
Both sides went into the London derby on Saturday afternoon having avoided defeat in their opening two Premier League fixtures, and their confidence shone through in an absorbing game.
Bobby Decordova Reid put Fulham ahead after just 44 seconds before Joao Palhinha soon doubled that lead, but Brentford were level by the 71st minute through efforts from Christian Norgaard and Ivan Toney.
While both teams had chances to collect all three points, it was Fulham who netted the decisive goal in the closing stages through Aleksandar Mitrovic.
The result has moved Fulham into fourth position in the Premier League standings, one point ahead of their opponents who are in fifth spot.
After the game, Silva was quick to credit his players for their performance, singling out Mitrovic who netted his third goal of the campaign.
As quoted by BBC Sport, Silva said: "Fantastic feeling. We knew it'd be tough but I think we deserved the win with the way we started, controlled, scored the goals, pressed them and did not let them create chances.
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"The first goal from them took some confidence from us and the start of the second half was our worst moment. They changed their formation, the way they played and they caused us some problems. I have to congratulate our players for the reaction when it went to 2-2. It is always special when you win a derby at home.
"If you deliver for Mitro, he is really strong in those types of situation. We are working with him to improve in other situations."
As far as Frank was concerned, he felt that his team were well on the way to extending their own undefeated streak, but the Dane was still proud of another encouraging display from his team.
Frank said: "Football is cruel, especially when you lose in the last minute. Maybe even more when you recover from 2-0 down. Apart from the first 20 mins and the last five minutes we played a good game. The mentality and desire got us back into the game. We always want to try and go for the win, and that is our offensive mentality.
"They scored before 60 seconds and that made them on top in the game. We could have maybe done something differently and then it was a ricochet and it went to them. It was a local derby and they came with an unbelievable intensity but it's football and it happens in the game.
"Coming down from 2-0 to 2-2 is extraordinary in the Premier League and we have done that twice. I'm pleased with a few things even though we lost. It is a maximum of 24 hours of celebrating or being down but tomorrow we need to focus and go again."
Both clubs participate in the EFL Cup in midweek with Fulham making the trip to Crawley Town and Brentford travelling to Colchester United.
Darren Plant
