Fulham 2-0 Blackburn - Championship leaders pull clear with confident victory
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Harry Wilson's 10th goal of the season helped give Fulham breathing space
Fulham extended their lead at the top of the Championship to 11 points with victory over fellow promotion hopefuls Blackburn Rovers at Craven Cottage.
It was the Cottagers' ninth win in their past 11 league games, and followed a dominant first-half display in which Neeskens Kebano and Harry Wilson netted without reply.
The hosts started at full pelt and took the game to Rovers, whose passive display in the opening 45 was punished when Kebano fired in after Neco Williams' shot was spilled by Thomas Kaminski, and then when Wilson lifted a long through-ball from former Blackburn loanee Tosin Adarabioyo over the Belgian keeper for a second.
Sam Gallagher was sent on after the break to give the visitors more of a presence up front and he was only denied a goal by the offside flag after burying the rebound from a Bradley Johnson header.
Despite an improved effort from Rovers, Marco Silva's hosts still had chances to further extend their lead with 34-goal Aleksandar Mitrovic bulleting a header into the side-netting and Williams hitting the bar spectacularly when trying to catch out Kaminski, who also beat away a Wilson free-kick late on.
Tony Mowbray's team are still fourth, although results could see them slip out of the top six come the end of the day.
Fulham's 7-0 thumping of Blackburn back in November proved a catalyst for the Lancashire side, triggering a 10-game unbeaten run which propelled them into the promotion mix.
However, they have failed to find that groove of late, with 20-goal top scorer Ben Brereton Diaz unavailable through injury, and have now scored just once in seven games.
Other than Gallagher's disallowed finish, Rovers struggled to create genuine chances to trouble Marek Rodak in the Fulham goal.
The hosts played with intent, with Jean Michael Seri dominating in midfield alongside Harrison Reed, and the movement of Fabio Carvalho, Wilson and Kebano around centre-forward Mitrovic causing endless problems.
Mitrovic has been a headline maker for much of the season but it was his unselfish link-up play rather than his goalscoring which proved most impressive at the Cottage, holding the ball up and bringing team-mates into the attack.
Their seemingly relentless march to promotion continues, as the division's leading scorers also kept a fourth clean sheet in six with this success.
Fulham head coach Marco Silva told BBC Radio London:
"We have to congratulate our players, because in the first half they did almost everything that was asked of them, and thank the fans because the noise and the atmosphere in the stadium was really good. They know they can be the 12th man.
"We were very good first half, a very good level, the way we created, the way we scored and commanded the game didn't give them chance to counter on us. We knew they would wait for our mistakes to make counters and they are dangerous at that. We did it really well, we controlled the game with quality football.
"Second half we expected a reaction from them and they did it. We were a little bit slow in moving the ball, but they didn't have a lot of chances. Overall we deserved the three points and we were the best team on the pitch."
Blackburn Rovers boss Tony Mowbray told BBC Radio Lancashire:
"We obviously suffered through the mistakes we made today. You go into games, you have gameplans for how you're going to play.
"The goalkeeper has held his hands up really. He fumbled the first one, he should be collecting that no problem, it wasn't as if it was a fantastic chance, it was just a fumble which allowed the boy to score.
"The second one the goalie has to come and deal with as well. We worked on how they play all week and their movements, all week he's been outside his box and sweeping those up, but he decides to go backwards.
"So it's frustrating for us, and for him because he's been fantastic for us, he's had a lot of clean sheets and won us football matches. It's not ideal to come to a place like this and shoot yourself in the foot.
"We have to accept they're a very good side. Yet, I felt in the second half we grew into the game."