Sabri Lamouchi felt Nottingham Forest deserved three points as they defeated Fulham 2-1 at Craven Cottage.
Two goals by Lewis Grabban extended their unbeaten run of games to four, ending a run of three straight wins for the hosts.
He said: “My feeling tonight is happy because it’s a great result. A fantastic performance by the team. They respect the plan, they play compact.
“We started in the right way, we disturbed them a lot and we fight until the end. With a lot of minutes more, with four or five attackers, it was just defending.
“Maybe we can score more, one at least, so we can be more quiet and more easy.
“It was not easy because they played very wide, with Ivan Cavaleiro one side and Anthony Knockaert on the other, with Aboubakar Kamara and Mitrovic in the middle.
“They did a great, great job, and maybe with luck sometimes we defended very well. I think they deserve this victory, for the spirit, for the plan, for the character, for the style, for the goals.”
He said: “I felt we controlled the game, we were in control – we started slowly. I was disappointed at the way we started the game.
“When they scored early, it put us on the back foot. Saying that after that we looked a real threat.
“The first 10 to 15 minutes we were on the back foot a little bit. It was a game of football, and on another day we control it.
“I always felt comfortable in the way we were playing, certainly in possession. I felt like we played pretty well.
“I include the second half, the second goal comes from a mistake by us, which is one of those things.
“I made the changes tactically, we went to a back three to try and get some more players further up the field.
“I take responsibility for that, that is the way I want us to play and sometimes that can happen.”
