Premier League: QPR 0 Fulham 1

Fulham posted their first away win in the Premier League since October on Saturday with a 1-0 triumph over Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road.

Pavel Pogrebnyak gave the visitors the lead after just seven minutes and that was where the scoreline stayed, with QPR’s cause not helped by the sending off of midfielder Samba Diakite – making his debut for the club – just after the half-hour mark for a second caution.

Both teams started brightly, cheered on by some extremely loud support, and Fulham had the ball in the back of the net with not even five minutes on the clock.

Andrew Johnson headed the ball in off the bar from John Arne Riise’s cross – but it was ruled out for offside.

It did not take long for Fulham to take the lead, however. Moussa Dembele created the goal with a fine back heel to send Pogrebnyak clear through on goal. The Russian striker rounded Paddy Kenny and placed the ball into the back of the net.

The visitors looked like scoring every time they went forward, with Clint Dempsey dragging a shot just wide of the far post soon after the goal.

But QPR soon picked up and started playing. Mark Schwarzer was on hand to prevent the home side getting level with an incredible save from Bobby Zamora. The ‘keeper initially spilled an effort by Shaun Wright-Phillips, but spread himself well to block Zamora’s rebound.

The game turned in Fulham’s favour just after the half-hour mark when Diakite picked up his second yellow of the match.

The midfielder, on loan from French outfit Nancy, had picked up a booking for repeated offences and got his marching orders for a bad tackle on Bryan Ruiz in the centre circle.

Ruiz did not help matters with some rolling around following the tackle, but Diakite gave referee Phil Dowd no choice but to send him off, becoming the third player in QPR’s last four home league games to be sent off in the first half, after Joey Barton against Norwich and Djibril Cisse against Wolves.

Following the red card, Fulham began to dominate possession, with Danny Murphy keeping the ball moving well and Dembele enjoying more time on the ball in a deeper role than usual for the visitors.

Fulham went in at half-time on top, leaving Mark Hughes with some serious thinking to do for the second half.

After the break, Fulham were content to sit back and defend their lead, waiting to hit back on the counterattack.

It was a dangerous tactic, with QPR going close in the 69th minute as Jamie Mackie powered through the defence before seeing his shot flash across the face of goal.

The hosts did not come close again until the 82nd minute with Wright-Phillips missing a fantastic chance when he was through on goal, pulling his shot just wide.

Fulham almost doubled their lead in the closing stages as Dickson Etuhu came off the bench and drove through the defence before crashing his effort wide.

Despite that miss, Martin Jol’s side maintained their advantage to post their first away league win since a 2-0 victory at Wigan on October 29.