Jean Tigana's champions-elect marched nearer to the Premiership with a rousing West London derby win over struggling neighbours QPR at Craven Cottage.

But it took a disputed penalty from Louis Saha - his 20th league goal of the season - and an injury-time second from Lee Clark to kill off plucky Rangers.

Tigana's runaway leaders failed to convert a plethora of chances against Ian Holloway's men despite the distance in class.

Holloway, in just his third game in charge of a Loftus Road club, saw his team display all the fighting qualities associated with a derby but they lacked the quality to threaten a side 12 points clear at the head of Division One.

For long periods, however, it was hard to tell that Rangers - who are some £12million in debt - have fallen so far behind their rich neighbours as they huffed and puffed in search of a valuable point in their fight for survival.

Fulham had gone close on a couple of occasions when former Rangers defender Rufus Brevett marauded down the left and sent a skidding 20th-minute cross into the area - Carl Ready diverting the ball narrowly past his own post.

The visitors showed their resilience in the opening half-hour but the gulf in quality between the teams began to tell as half-time approached.

Saha was only the width of the goalline away from breaking the deadlock in the 29th minute - connecting with Bjarne Goldbaek's left-wing corner and crashing his header off the underside of the bar.

It was only a matter of time until the hosts did score and Lee Harper, in the visitors' goal, did his best to extend the blank.

First, when Saha's pull-back was met by John Collins, he tipped the midfielder's left-footed shot around the post with a magnificent full-length save.

Then he somehow got his fingertips to a Clark drive that rebounded into play off the woodwork once again.

Steve Finnan retrieved the ball, however, and was adjudged to have been impeded by Ready, referee Mick Riley pointing to the spot - much to the visitors' disgust.

Striker Saha despatched the spot-kick with aplomb, the ball rifling into the roof of the net to give the visitors a 37th-minute advantage.

Yet the visitors should have gained an unwarranted equaliser in first-half injury-time, only for captain Gavin Peacock to lift his chip over the bar when clean through.

The visiting skipper's profligacy, from his side's first clear-cut chance, represented a rare foray forward in the opening 45 minutes.

But a second opportunity hastily followed at the start of the second period, with Leon Knight, the teenager on loan from Chelsea, arrowing a shot into Brevitt's midriff before the defender cleared the danger.

Harper's perceptibility in dealing with the high ball, which caused him problems all afternoon, almost gifted a second to Saha. But after flapping at a punch the keeper redeemed himself by saving smartly with his legs.

Substitutes Luis Boa Morte and Karlheinz Riedle both went close in the closing stages as QPR were exposed in searching for an equaliser.

Midfielder Clark finally killed them off in injury time when he seized on Boa Morte's through ball, beat the offside trap and calmly slotted home from the edge of the area, despite Harper getting a hand to the ball.

Teams:

Fulham: Taylor, Finnan, Brevett, Melville, Symons, Clark, John Collins, Hayles (Boa Morte 64), Goldbaek (Riedle 69), Saha (Stolcers 80), Davis.

Subs Not Used: Hahnemann, Neilson.

Goals: Saha 37 pen, Clark 90.

QPR: Harper, Perry, Ready, Plummer, Baraclough, Rose (Kulcsar 79), Murray (Kiwomya 57), Darlington, Knight (Warren 72), Peacock, Crouch.

Subs Not Used: Miklosko, Wardley.

Booked: Baraclough, Crouch.

Att: 16,021

Ref: M Riley (Leeds).