Keith Andrews said his Brentford team would learn a lot from their late draw with Everton as they look to get their European ambitions back on track this weekend.
Brentford missed the chance to edge closer to the Champions League places after being held in a 2-2 draw by fellow hopefuls Everton at Gtech Community Stadium.
Igor Thiago had twice given the Bees the lead, only for Beto and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, the latter scoring a 91st-minute equaliser, to seal a share of the spoils.
Andrews' side had their chances, having registered an expected goals (xG) total of 2.84 from their 17 shots compared to Everton's 1.53 from their 14 attempts in the match.
Brentford return to home soil with a London derby against Fulham, knowing a win could catapult them into sixth place should Chelsea fail to beat Manchester United on Saturday.
"Lots," Andrews said when asked what his team would learn from the Everton result. "The nature of it is we are a very young side in the main - managing games and times.
"We weren't under severe pressure. It wasn't like Caoimhin [Kelleher] was producing save after save. I'm proud of what the players did today and we should have won the game.
"The first half we played well without being brilliant. Dams [Mikkel Damsgaard] wasn't well. It was a risk playing him – he had disrupted sleep – and that affected our energy.
"We were slow and laboured. In the second half, I really liked the look of us."
Andrews' thoughts were similar to that of Fulham boss Marco Silva, who watched his team lose 2-0 to Premier League champions Liverpool at Anfield last time out.
Fulham had 19 efforts against Arne Slot's side, which generated an xG total of 1.04, though two quickfire goals from Rio Ngumoha and Mohamed Salah decided the result.
The Cottagers have now had 41 shots in their last two Premier League matches, an average of 20.5 per game, though that has only resulted in three goals, all of which came against Burnley ahead of last month's international break.
Fulham are 12th in the Premier League and still with an outside chance of finishing in the European places, but Silva said his team must perform at the highest level for the duration of their remaining matches if they are to achieve their goal.
"The game was decided in five minutes," Silva said. "In my opinion, it was decided in that first half, when our approach was not aggressive enough, on and off the ball.
"We gave Liverpool the chance to build up their attack too easily in some moments, not with the right aggressiveness off the ball.
"That was the reason why they had the chances, and they were in command of the game most of the time during the first half.
"For us to win games and to be fighting for what we want to fight for, has to be much more in the way we played the second half than we did the first half."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Brentford – Igor Thiago
Only Manchester City's Erling Haaland (22) has scored more Premier League goals this season than Brentford's Thiago (21).
The last Brazilian player to score more in a season in one of Europe's big-five leagues was Neymar for Barcelona in 2015-16 (24).
Fulham – Harry Wilson
Wilson has been the standout performer for Fulham this season, with his 16 goal involvements (10 goals, six assists), more than any other player for the Cottagers in 2025-26.
And you would expect him to add to that tally, given he has netted more goals against Brentford (four) than any other side that he has faced in the Premier League.
MATCH PREDICTION: BRENTFORD WIN
Brentford lost this exact fixture 3-2 last season but have not lost consecutive home league games against Fulham since April 1998.
Despite being favoured by the Opta supercomputer, Brentford have drawn their last four league matches, having only drawn four of their first 28 games in 2025-26 (W13 D11).
Only Newcastle United (30) have conceded more goals after scoring first in top-flight games this term than Brentford's 24, whose last three have seen them take five points.
Fulham, meanwhile, have won each of their last three league games against Brentford, more than they had in their first 14 21st century meetings with the Bees (W2 D4 L8).
However, since the turn of the year, no side has scored fewer first-half Premier League goals than Fulham (four), though it is not only their slow starts that have hindered them.
They have lost 10 of their last 15 league games against teams starting the day in the top-half (W3 D2), including the last four in a row since a 2-1 win over Chelsea in January.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Brentford – 51.1%
Draw – 24.8%
Fulham – 24.1%