Marco Silva complains about refereeing decisions going against Fulham in the Premier League

The Cottagers moved into ninth place after they claimed their second win of the season through Carlos Vinicius’ 65th-minute winner.

But Silva felt hard done by after the officiating during their 5-1 defeat at Manchester City and Tim Ream being shown red in their 3-0 loss at home to Brentford last month.

“We’ve had five games with a tough schedule and many decisions against us,” Silva said.

“Sometimes it’s important to remind you because you forget the many decisions against us that have had a huge impact in the Manchester City game, Brentford game after the penalty and red card.

“It’s not an excuse, but it’s a reality. 40 per cent of our XI didn’t have a normal pre season because they were injured and this group of players showed great togetherness, organisation in moments in the way we play. We took points away from home and I’m pleased with the way they work and their commitment.

“It’s easy to say we lost 5-1 (Manchester City) but the game should have been 1-1 before it went to 2-1 and the fourth goal is not a penalty. If the goals were disallowed and they didn’t have the penalty then the result would be completely different.”

Silva praised Vinicius’ impact off the bench after the striker replaced Raul Jimenez in the second-half to open his account for the season.

And the Fulham boss admitted that chance creation needs to improve but credited Vinicius’ hard work to try to break into the starting XI.

“It’s an opportunity for him (Vinicius) and the other strikers as well,” Silva added.

“He’s working really hard and improving like Raul (Jimenez) and they need to compete and we’ll decide who will be the best striker for each game depending on our strategy

“If we didn’t build that moment (for the goal) when we went between the lines with Alex Iwobi before the ball arrived for Willian (who assisted) then it doesn’t matter which striker we play on the pitch.

“If we don’t create for them then they are not going to score. We have to create more chances, we have to perform better for our strikers to score more goals but it’s nice to see one of them score the winner.”

Luton have now lost four straight games and sit at the foot of the table.

Rob Edwards’ side nearly grabbed a late equaliser through Tom Lockyer but they failed to bring the score level despite a positive spell late on.

“We have to try and stay in the games,” Edwards said.

“It’s important we don’t go 2-0 down and we maintained a presence by keeping it at 1-0 and turning up the heat later on. We made the changes and started to press high and forcing the issue.”

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