QPR boss Neil Warnock refuses to blame players after Fulham loss

Queens Park Rangers manager Neil Warnock said he would not be too hard on his players after they were thrashed 6-0 at Fulham.

He said injuries to his defensive line-up allowed the home side's three-man attack to slice through his side "like a knife through butter".

"We lost Matthew Connolly and Fitz Hall has an injury," said Warnock.

"We were at sixes and sevens at the back and it showed. I don't think there'll be many days like this."

Andrew Johnson scored a hat-trick for Fulham as Rangers lost for the third time in seven Premier League fixtures this season.

"If you started shouting at them you'd never shut up," added Warnock. "We had to get on with it. It was bad and they took advantage."

And he claimed that he had no knowledge of reports that Morocco international and former QPR skipper Adel Taarabt stormed out of the ground after being substituted.

"That's not my problem at the moment," said the Rangers boss. "I have no idea [whether he left the dressing room].

"I don't think you can blame Adel Taarabt for the result. We conceded six goals. You've got to look at that.

"If I'm honest, if we had Darren Bent playing for us today, and a few England players, we'd have still been beaten 6-0.

"You get days when Adel comes off. You're going to get days when he throws his toys out of the pram, but that isn't a worry for me."

Fulham boss Martin Jol was pleased with the run of form being enjoyed by striker Johnson, whose hat-trick came days after he scored twice against Odense in the Europa League.

"I'm very happy for him and for us as well," said Jol.

"He scored the goals in Europe, did it in the Premier League but it doesn't matter who scores the goals, we need the results.

"I felt that maybe we scored too many but on other days we didn't get the goals we needed."

Johnson is out of contract at the end of the season and the manager was keen to stress that he is confident the striker will sign a new deal.

"Other people are doing the negotiations," added Jol.

"I will back him all the time and hopefully he is good for us this season because he has scored more goals today than he did in the whole of last season.

"But I feel Andy Johnson and Fulham is a good combination."