A header from Brett Emerton went wide, a shot from Morten Gamst Pedersen was skied before the Norwegian shuddered the crossbar with a left-footed free-kick.But they kept pushing and hope came when Knight inadvertently headed Paul Dickov’s cross into his own net. Dickov was now buzzing, curling another shot narrowly wide and forcing Crossley to parry as Fulham panicked. “We thought it was offside,” said Hughes, with some justification.Apart from an early Collins John header – again set up by Boa Morte – which was tipped over smartly by Friedel, that was it for Fulham, who lost Steed Malbranque to a hamstring injury before kick-off and had to deal with Diop going off with a knock to his ankle soon into the second half.Blackburn were more profligate, adding to the criminality by not even forcing Mark Crossley into saves. The low cross was curled in after the Portuguese had taken a steadying touch. Boa Morte set up the first goal with a free-kick for Papa Bouba Diop. Somehow the 6ft 4in Senegalese midfielder was allowed to steal in unmarked and scuff the ball into the net past Brad Friedel.Boa Morte then added the second himself completing a sharp passing move when he was picked out by the substitute Heidar Helguson. “It was not a great performance,” admitted Fulham manager Chris Coleman.

It all kicked off with a robust challenge by the relentless Luis Boa Morte on Lucas Neill. The Australian then appeared to spend much of the match trying to exact retribution on the Fulham captain and executed two terrible shoulder charges.Unfortunately for Neill and his team-mates, Boa Morte likes nothing more than a feisty tussle and he again proved his huge worth to Fulham – “pound for pound our best player”, said Coleman, who praised his “heart and passion”. The referee was let down by his assistants, Hughes said, while he was let down by his strikers “We created enough to win two games,” he said. “And we have to be more clinical.”Fulham did appear there for the taking and Blackburn came away knowing they could have been victorious. It means they boast a far better home record than Manchester United – strangely the only team that a frustrated Blackburn Rovers have beaten on their League travels.

If the result went somewhat to form, with goals either side of half-time before a 90th-minute Zat Knight own goal, then so did much of the play, with a flurry of rash, late and tetchy challenges for the referee Mark Clattenburg to deal with. Eight cards? Well, it’s almost Christmas, although the face of the Blackburn manager Mark Hughes betrayed a far less festive mood.
Afterwards he complained bitterly about his annoyance “with the amount of late flags”. There was nothing homely about Craven Cottage during this encounter as Fulham secured their fourth successive victory on home turf to propel them away from the relegation places. After 40 minutes the points were Manchester City’s as Sibierski headed a thirdfrom Barton’s free-kick. Bradley Wright-Phillips added a fourth only 90 seconds after taking the field.Jiri Jarosik, the Birmingham substitute, repeated the feat and Birmingham’s misery was complete when Vaesen was sent off in stoppage time, earning a yellow card for handling outside the box, having been booked for the foul leading to the penalty..

“The team needs emergency surgery,” he added.The rout was under way within the first minute with a goal timed at 42 seconds. From a corner, Antoine Sibierski headed goalwards and Darius Vassell knocked it into the path of full-back David Sommeil, who lashed it past a helpless Nico Vaesen.A 15th-minute penalty enabled the home side to assume control Joey Barton converted after Vaesen had brought down Vassell. The Birmingham manager has been told by the St Andrew’s board that his position is secure but he admitted he had to consider how much of the side’s sharp decline is down to him.
“It is hard to go on live television and to face the media when your team has been totally and utterly humiliated,” he said. I am embarrassed to be associated with it.”It would be a surprise, none the less, were Bruce to walk. When he insisted he “would not go down without a fight”, it was clear he intends to do his utmost to restore his reputation by turning the side’s fortunes around, with the players paying the price for too many sub-par performances. “It was the worst performance I have had as a manager and ultimately I am responsible And I can’t just accept it. Steve Bruce confessed to being “embarrassed and humiliated” by his Birmingham team’s latest abject performance in a season threatening to end in relegation.

The quality is not what I left behind.” Which begs the question he has never really answered: why on earth did he leave?. Home-moving can be a stressful business Only slightly less so than divorce, they say. As Arsenal sell off the old abode, prepare to pack up the silverware and load the removal vans for the short journey to Ashburton Grove, there is a suspicion that the former could be a precursor to the latter. This was our worst performance of the season in terms of creating a chance.”Portsmouth’s maverick, Laurent Robert, had inspired some confidence with his dead-ball kicking and some intuitive passing, and the Frenchman was responsible for Portsmouth’s best opportunity of the first half, curling a free-kick narrowly wide from an angle. It should be emphasised immediately that manager Ars? Wenger laughingly dismisses any contention that either he or his captain and key striker Thierry Henry – or for that matter England defender Ashley Cole – will be absent from the Arsenal payroll come February when his team engage in a two-legged Champions’ League confrontation with Real Madrid, the club who are said to covet them..