Fulham 6 QPR 0
Andrew Johnson scored a hat-trick as Fulham humiliated QPR in a totally one-sided derby.
It emphatically ended the Whites’ long wait for a first league win under Martin Jol and lifted them out of the bottom three, leaving Rangers licking their wounds after a harrowing first defeat since their pre-deadline spending spree.
Danny Murphy, Clint Dempsey and Bobby Zamora also scored for the home side, who were 3-0 up at half-time.
Johnson got the opener after only two minutes, pouncing on the loose ball after keeper Paddy Kenny parried Moussa Dembele’s effort.
Murphy netted a 20th-minute penalty after Kenny brought down Johnson, who tucked away the third from Zamora’s low cross.
And Johnson completed his treble – and the first Premier League hat-trick by a Fulham player – courtesy of Murphy’s quickly taken free-kick.
Johnson turned provider for the fifth, storming down the left and crossing for Dempsey to score.
Dempsey then teed up Zamora, who cut in from the left and rifled into the far corner of the net.
Jol opted for an ultra-attacking formation, seemingly believing QPR to be vulnerable at the back – and this annihilation proved how right he was.
For the first time this season, Johnson, Dembele and Zamora were all included in the starting line-up – a sign of Jol’s determination to get that overdue league win.
And it paid an instant dividend as they made the perfect start to the first match between these clubs for over 10 years and their first ever meeting in the top flight.
Johnson, who scored twice in the midweek Europa League victory against Odense, pounced after Kenny was unable to hold Dembele’s shot, and Fulham almost doubled their lead when Dempsey’s effort was cleared off the line by Fitz Hall.
Rangers simply could not handle Fulham’s front line – and in particular Johnson, who burst into the penalty area and won the spot-kick which Murphy fired high into the net to put Fulham two up.
Worse followed for Rangers seven minutes before the break. Dempsey did well on the left and after the American’s shot was blocked, Zamora reacted quickly and laid the ball across for Johnson to add the third.
QPR boss Neil Warnock made a double substitution at half-time, replacing Shaun Derry and Adel Taarabt with DJ Campbell and Tommy Smith.
Rangers, who have not scored against Fulham since May 1983, did at least make a better start to the second period and went close to getting a goal back when Shaun Wright-Phillips fired narrowly wide.
And there was one definite plus for them with the second-half introduction of Jamie Mackie, marking his return to first-team action nine months after suffering a broken leg.
But they defended abysmally and were caught napping yet again on the hour mark, when Murphy’s quick thinking at a free-kick put Johnson through on a woefully exposed Kenny and the striker made no mistake.
The fifth arrived when Dempsey finished coolly after Johnson’s cross had been flicked on by Zamora, who got on the scoresheet himself to make it six.
A striker scoring a hat-trick, the home team three up at half-time and demolishing their west London neighbours 6-0; for Gary Bannister read Johnson, and for QPR’s 1986 slaying of Chelsea read this battering of Rangers by Fulham.
This too is a result both sets of fans will remember for a long time to come.
This post was last modified on 03/10/2011