Match ends, Fulham 4, Queens Park Rangers 0.
FulhamFulham4QPRQueens Park Rangers0
Captain Ross McCormack scored twice as Fulham thrashed QPR 4-0 in a one-sided west London derby at Craven Cottage.
Just 117 seconds had been played when French teenager Moussa Dembele rose to nod in James Husband's left-wing cross.
After Massimo Luongo wasted a good chance to equalise for QPR, Ben Pringle doubled Fulham's lead from 18 yards.
McCormack slotted home from inside the box to make it 3-0 after 31 minutes and scrambled in a fourth, while QPR lost top scorer Charlie Austin to injury.
The second-half departure of their talismanic striker, with what appeared to be a hamstring injury, merely capped an awful night for Rangers as they were well beaten by their local rivals.
QPR, who would have gone into the Championship's top four with a victory, took time to settle after Dembele's early goal.
They could have levelled when a superb move put Luongo clear, but the Australia international side-footed wide from 12 yards.
The hosts were 2-0 up within a minute of Luongo's miss, as winger Pringle shifted the ball onto his favoured left foot before firing in past Robert Green.
Whites captain McCormack made the most of the space afforded to him inside the box to collect Tom Cairney's pass and beat Green with an angled shot.
The Scotland international rounded off the scoring shortly after the hour, forcing the ball in after QPR centre-back Gabriele Angella had turned a Ryan Fredericks cross onto his own crossbar.
Fulham, who climb to 11th and within a point of QPR in the Championship table, were rarely troubled defensively as they kept their first clean sheet in the league this season.
| Goals, goals, goals... |
|---|
| Fulham have scored in all eight of their league games this season, while QPR failed to find the net for the first time since 8 August. |
Fulham manager Kit Symons: "It was the best performance since I've been here and the most pleasing one.
"I wanted to make sure we had the bragging rights come tomorrow morning and Fulham fans will be crowing after that one - and rightly so.
"I was waiting for everything to click and it did tonight. We will need to kick on from this and make sure this sort of performance becomes the norm and we start moving up the table."
QPR head coach Chris Ramsey: "Hopefully it's a bad day at the office. It was a poor performance all round. There were a lot of individual errors that caused us more problems than we needed right from the start.
"We suffered from making some very basic individual errors in defence and I don't know any team that can continually deal with that."
Ramsey on Austin's injury: "I think it's his hamstring but I am not 100%. We will find out later on tonight probably."
Line-ups
Fulham
Formation 4-4-2
- 24Lonergan
- 7FredericksSubstituted forVoserat 77'minutes
- 5Stearman
- 13Ream
- 40Husband
- 10Cairney
- 19Tunnicliffe
- 23O'HaraSubstituted forChristensenat 65'minutes
- 18Pringle
- 44McCormack
- 25DembeleSubstituted forWoodrowat 76'minutes
Substitutes
- 12Lewis
- 14Mattila
- 15Voser
- 16Woodrow
- 21Christensen
- 32Kavanagh
- 33Burn
QPR
Formation 4-2-3-1
- 1Green
- 24PerchBooked at 80mins
- 5Onuoha
- 26Angella
- 15Konchesky
- 20Henry
- 18Faurlin
- 7Phillips
- 21Luongo
- 8CherySubstituted forMackieat 35'minutesSubstituted forFerat 45'minutes
- 9AustinSubstituted forTözsérat 59'minutes
Substitutes
- 4Hall
- 10Fer
- 11Gladwin
- 12Mackie
- 16Doughty
- 25Smithies
- 28Tözsér
- Referee:
- Kevin Friend
- Attendance:
- 19,784
Match Stats
Home TeamFulhamAway TeamQPR
- Possession
- Home51%
- Away49%
- Shots
- Home13
- Away7
- Shots on Target
- Home7
- Away2
- Corners
- Home5
- Away2
- Fouls
- Home5
- Away10
Live Text
Post update
Full Time
Second Half ends, Fulham 4, Queens Park Rangers 0.
Post update
Corner, Fulham. Conceded by James Perch.
Post update
Attempt blocked. Ben Pringle (Fulham) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Ross McCormack with a cross.
Post update
Cauley Woodrow (Fulham) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Post update
Foul by Nedum Onuoha (Queens Park Rangers).
Post update
Attempt missed. Kay Voser (Fulham) left footed shot from the centre of the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Ross McCormack.
Post update
Foul by Alejandro Faurlin (Queens Park Rangers).
Post update
Kay Voser (Fulham) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Post update
Attempt missed. Cauley Woodrow (Fulham) left footed shot from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by James Husband with a cross.
Booking
James Perch (Queens Park Rangers) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Post update
Foul by James Perch (Queens Park Rangers).
Post update
James Husband (Fulham) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Post update
Attempt blocked. Daniel Tözsér (Queens Park Rangers) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Karl Henry.
Post update
Foul by Leroy Fer (Queens Park Rangers).
Post update
Richard Stearman (Fulham) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Substitution
Substitution, Fulham. Kay Voser replaces Ryan Fredericks.
Substitution
Substitution, Fulham. Cauley Woodrow replaces Moussa Dembele.
Post update
Corner, Queens Park Rangers. Conceded by Tim Ream.
Post update
Attempt saved. Ryan Tunnicliffe (Fulham) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Ben Pringle.
