Fulham welcome Queens Park Rangers to Craven Cottage in this weekend’s Championship West London derby.
In a city of many rivalries, the intensity of Fulham and QPR’s clashes has been neutered in recent years. Neither fanbase holds much animosity for the other, instead choosing to vent their collective spleen upon Chelsea whenever the Blues visit either Craven Cottage or Loftus Road.
However, that is not to say that the West Londoners have not still enjoyed entertaining battles in recent years. With both having fallen on hard times lately, tumbling out of the top flight with a whimper, they now find themselves pitted against each other in a desperate scrap for a play-off berth come the end of the season.
Take a look at five of the more memorable clashes between Fulham and QPR in recent seasons.
13th February 2016 – QPR 1-3 Fulham
Slavisa Jokanovic picked up his first win as Fulham boss by recording a 3-1 victory at Loftus Road. The Cottagers had not won for six games when they arrived at QPR, who themselves had tasted victory just once in 12 games.
Ross McCormack drilled home the opener in the first half and Moussa Dembele doubled their money in the second period. Tom Cairney’s deflected effort made it 3-0, before Tjaronn Chery grabbed a late consolation for Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s men.
25th September 2015 – Fulham 4-0 QPR
QPR were thrashed in what turned out to be a very one-sided London derby, with McCormack once again the star of the show.
Dembele got the hosts off to the perfect start, rising to nod home James Husband’s left-wing cross. Ben Pringle added a second from 18 yards after 19 minutes, before McCormack made it 3-0 on 31 minutes with a composed finish.
QPR talisman Charlie Austin, who had been the subject of much transfer speculation throughout the window, was forced off with an injury before McCormack added his second minutes later.
1st April 2013 – Fulham 3-2 QPR
Fulham may not have been the ones to slam the proverbial dagger into QPR’s survival hopes but they certainly aided their accelerated their slide into the second tier.
After failing to win for six games, the Hoops looked to have put together a late revival by putting together back-to-back wins against Southampton and Sunderland but a 3-2 defeat to Aston Villa spoiled the party somewhat. They made the short trip to Craven Cottage knowing that a defeat would leave them seven points adrift with as many games remaining.
£12.5 million signing Chris Samba looked out-of-sorts as his two errors led to Dimitar Berbatov bagging twice for the Cottagers in the first half. Clint Hill then put through his own net before half-time to leave Rangers with a huge mountain to climb.
Adel Taarabt wrestled back some hope for the visitors in the second half with a low strike, before Loic Remy made amends for a missed penalty by notching moments later. It would not prove enough however; the Hoops failed to win another game and were relegated within four weeks.
15th December 2012 – QPR 2-1 Fulham
QPR looked in crisis after having failed to win any of their opening 16 league games of the 2012-13 season. With Mark Hughes having been sacked and replaced with Harry Redknapp, the club were desperate to string together the unlikeliest of escapes, with many claiming this was a side even worse than the Derby County outfit which picked up 11 points during the 2007-08 campaign.
After drawing their previous three games, relief was paramount around Loftus Road when the final whistle confirmed they had finally registered their first win, even if it had arrived a week before Christmas.
The mercurial Taarabt proved the hero, downing Fulham with a pair of sensational strikes. The first was a long-range effort which looped in off Brede Hangeland, while the second was a mazy run which ended with him impetuously curling the ball into the net.
Mladen Petric’s late goal was enough to signal a nervy climax, but the Hoops weren’t to be denied.
2nd October 2011 – Fulham 6-0 QPR
Andy Johnson struck a hat-trick for Fulham as they swept QPR aside on a frosty October morning. The striker pounced after just 78 seconds after Paddy Kenny had spilled an effort from Mousa Dembele, before later winning a penalty which Danny Murphy converted.
After the interval, Murphy returned the favour by sidling a free-kick into the former Crystal Palace hotshot to drill home. Johnson bagged two more to seal his hat-trick, exposing a lacklustre QPR back line that left Mark Hughes on the verge of a meltdown.
QPR’s misery was compounded when Clint Dempsey nonchalantly added a fifth, before Bobby Zamora lashed home the sixth. Of course, Zamora would make it up to the Hoops years later, but that’s for a different tale.
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