Marco Silva said Harry Wilson deserved his second half added-time brace after he came off the bench to help Fulham to come from behind and snatch a 2-1 victory over Brentford in the Premier League.
A stunning goal from Vitaly Janelt looked set to give Thomas Frank’s side the points against their west London opponents at Craven Cottage.
However, Wilson – who has not made a league start this season – scored his first in the second minute of stoppage time from fellow substitute Adama Traore’s cross, creatively flicking the ball over Brentford goalkeeper Mark Flekken.
The Wales international then capped the turnaround with a header from Antonee Robinson’s delivery five minutes later.
Wilson’s double ended a winless run of three matches for Silva’s men, and after the match the Portuguese told reporters: “It’s been a tough season for him and Harry wants to play more, he’s not getting the minutes he wanted.
“It’s not easy to find space for everybody but he’s on fire for the national team and in a Fulham shirt we knew he is capable.
“He needs to wait and be patient and when he gets a chance he needed to take it, he had a great night and this is the most important thing.
“I know him very well. I think he was my first signing at the club and he’s been important for us. I congratulated him and he deserves this moment.”
Fulham had 26 shots on the night as they looked to bounce back from Everton’s late equaliser against them last week.
Silva believes the latest result reflected his side’s performance, adding: “We deserved the three points, no doubts about it. It summed up our season so far, we were dominant, we were the best team and created more.
“They didn’t have anything until that moment (Janelt goal) from 25 yards and they scored, we didn’t lose the confidence and we tried pushing them back and had many ways to score.
“The result was unfair for some time, I told the players to keep pushing and I have to give praise to Brentford, they defended hard in their box.
“The reality is we didn’t give up. We put Harry Wilson in a different position and we let him be closer to Rodrigo (Muniz) and he has good timing into the box.”
Brentford had sat back for most of the match having taken the lead when Janelt’s belter rocketed past Bernd Leno.
Thomas Frank admitted being dealt a double blow that late on was hard to take.
The Bees boss said: “It’s brutal, it’s the small margins and the better team won on the day.
“When you’re leading 1-0 in the 92nd or 93rd minute, we didn’t score the big chance.
“But the defending was unbelievable, the boys did everything, they threw everything at us and it was an unbelievable touch from Wilson, it is a 1 in 100 goal from that angle.
“We went for the win, could have won it but in the end we lost it.”
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