Slavisa Jokanovic played down his part in a blood and thunder West London derby as two late melees overshadowing a game that rightly ended honours evening.

Chris Martin missed Fulham’s third penalty against QPR this season, before Ryan Manning capitalised on Kevin McDonald’s mistake to give Rangers the lead.

But Martin’s vital touch on Tom Cairney’s shot was enough to deny QPR their first West London league double in 37 years.

The game threatened to boil over at the death, with players and coaching staff alike involved after the referee lost control.

Jokanovic said: "It was nothing. Apologies for my side, I want to clear my dugout and it’s some pushing around, nothing special. It’s part of the game.

"We came here with the intention to win the game, but at the beginning of the game we made a few important mistakes.

"We missed the penalty, especially in these conditions, on this kind of field where it’s not easy for us to move the ball.

"I would expect we are going to improve in the future."


Fulham should have led on seven minutes after Sone Aluko skinned Jake Bidwell before hitting the deck under minimal contact.

Martin stepped up and struck his penalty well, but Alex Smithies’ full-stretch dive kept things level.

The Hoops almost led on 14 minutes, Tomas Kalas’ mistake allowing Idrissa Sylla through, but the Czech defender recovered well.

Cairney’s fierce 25-yard strike after 21 minutes brought cheers from the away support, but his effort only skimmed the side netting, while Rangers took the lead shortly after via poor decision-making and bad luck from McDonald.

His ill-judged backpass bobbled off the turf straight to Manning, who calmly nutmegged the onrushing keeper for his first QPR goal.

Cairney linked well with Lucas Piazon on 33 minutes, his return pass giving the Brazilian a chance, but his shot was blocked.

Half-time substitute Denis Odoi brought down Manning on 52 minutes, but Bidwell’s whipped free-kick was headed over by Nedum Onuoha with Sylla lurking behind.

Sylla was then booked on 61 minutes for a blatant handball, unashamedly palming a cross into the net.

But Rangers began to sit deep, allowing Fulham to pen them in and they deservedly levelled after 75 minutes.

Grant Hall cleared a corner but it fell at Cairney’s feet, whose shot was deftly flicked past Smithies by Martin.

But QPR looked dangerous at set pieces and should have restored their lead on 82 minutes.

Joel Lynch completely mistimed his leap to meet a cross, before it fell to Hall, whose audacious back heel went narrowly wide.

The match threatened to boil over late on, as coaching staff had a brief pushing match before their players followed suit, Cairney lucky to escape with just a yellow.

"It was a very gutsy performance from my boys, very committed," said Jokanovic's counterpart, Ian Holloway.

"Lots of things we did well, lots of things we can do a little bit better.

"The penalty seemed to change everything. Luckily, my goalie made a great save to correct a massive error. It’s still hard to believe now that that was given.

"I thought the referee lost control of the situation, whatever was happening, I didn’t understand what was going on. I wasn’t involved, makes a change!

"It felt like it was madness for a while, or is that just a local derby? Who knows?"