Blackburn 3 Fulham 1
Blackburn, in crisis on and off the pitch, and reduced to 10 men midway through the first half, still managed to brush Fulham aside at Ewood Park.
Under-fire Rovers boss Steve Kean must have feared the worst when Yakubu was red-carded for a reckless challenge on Danny Murphy.
But Morten Gamst Pederson found the bottom corner of the net with a free-kick just before the interval.
And David Dunn doubled Rovers’ lead less than a minute after the restart, when he gathered the loose ball after Philippe Senderos’ tackle on David Goodwillie and fired home.
Fulham halved the deficit when Murphy found Damien Duff, whose shot went through the legs of Rovers defender Martin Olsson and into the bottom corner.
But Mauro Formica restored Blackburn’s two-goal cushion with a cool finish after latching onto Steven Nzonzi’s ball over the top.
The victory took Rovers off the foot of the table and out of the bottom three, and was a massive boost for former Fulham assistant manager Kean, whose team have won two of their last four games.
For the Whites, it continued their dismal away record and was a major disappointment after an encouraging recent run of results.
It might have been a different story had Bobby Zamora’s early header from Duff’s cross gone in rather than struck the woodwork.
And after Yakubu’s dismissal, Rovers keeper Paul Robinson produced a brilliant save to keep out Senderos’ header.
Having gone so close to going ahead, Fulham were stunned to find themselves two down before Duff’s goal against his former club gave Martin Jol’s side hope.
That hope evaporated when Formica was given time and space to let the ball bounce and then pick his spot.
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This post was last modified on 16/01/2012
