Schwarzer saves pen, denies QPR

Surprise, surprise ... Mark Schwarzer celebrates another penalty stop. Source: Carl Court / AAP

Fulham's Australian goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer produced heroics from the penalty spot once again to break Queen Park Rangers hearts in a 3-2 win at Craven Cottage.

A Dimitar Berbatov brace ensured 10-man Fulham gained sweet revenge over relegation-threatened QPR in the thrilling win. 

The Cottagers, who were beaten by their west London neighbours earlier in the season, got off to the perfect start and went three up.

Bulgarian Berbatov scored in his fourth consecutive game as he calmly rolled home an early penalty before adding a second soon after.

An own goal by Clint Hill gave the Cottagers a seemingly unassailable lead, but Adel Taarabt's strike late in the first-half gave Rangers glimmer of hope.

Loic Remy then saw his penalty saved by Mark Schwarzer before making amends just minutes later.

Harry Redknapp's side couldn't find the equaliser and now remain seven points from safety with seven games of the season remaining.

		P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
1	Man United	30	25	2	3	39	77
2	Man City	30	18	8	4	29	62
3	Tottenham	31	17	6	8	15	57
4	Chelsea	30	16	7	7	27	55
5	Arsenal	30	15	8	7	26	53
6	Everton	30	13	12	5	12	51
7	Liverpool	31	13	9	9	19	48
8	West Brom	31	13	5	13	0	44
9	Swansea	31	10	10	11	1	40
10	Fulham	30	10	9	11	-3	39
11	West Ham	30	10	6	14	-9	36
12	Southampton	31	8	10	13	-9	34
13	Stoke	31	7	13	11	-9	34
14	Norwich	31	7	13	11	-19	34
15	Newcastle	31	9	6	16	-15	33
16	Sunderland	31	7	10	14	-10	31
17	Wigan	30	8	6	16	-20	30
18	Aston Villa	31	7	9	15	-26	30
19	QPR	31	4	11	16	-23	23
20	Reading	31	5	8	18	-25	23

Last season QPR suffered an embarrassing 6-0 defeat at Craven Cottage and it looked like there could be a similar scoreline after a dominant first-half display by the hosts.

Marquee January signing Christopher Samba gifted the Cottagers their first two goals, bringing down Ashkan Dejagah to allow Berbatov to net an eighth-minute penalty. Things got worse soon after when Samba lost possession of the ball on the edge of his own box, allowing Berbatov to coolly slot home past Julio Cesar.

Chants of "going down" echoed around Craven Cottage when Hill put a John Arne Riise cross into his goal, but QPR rallied and launched the unlikeliest of comebacks.

Taarabt, who stormed out at half-time of last season's Craven Cottage encounter, reduced the deficit on the stroke of half-time firing low past Mark Schwarzer.

Six minutes into the second half referee Lee Probert pointed to the spot after Giorgos Karagounis was fooled by the quick feet of Taarabt, but Remy's penalty was saved to his left by Mark Schwarzer.

The France international, though, soon made amends, losing marker Philippe Senderos and continuing forward before thrashing home off the underside of the bar.

The veteran Australian had to be at his best for the rest of the match and, despite Steve Sidwell's late sending off, Fulham held on, condemning QPR to a potentially season-defining defeat and leaving their Premier League status in serious danger.

Read more: http://www1.skysports.com/football/live/match/281858/report

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AFL denies ASADA deal on Bombers

ASADA ... The AFL denies a deal to save Essendon players from bans. Source: Sarah Reed / News Limited

AFL boss Andrew Demetriou has rubbished claims of a secret deal between Essendon and the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority.

Fairfax Media alleged on Thursday that ASADA had proposed a deal that would have seen Essendon players escape the doping investigation without sanction, while NRL players copped minimum six-month bans.

But Demetriou said yesterday the report was "complete and utter nonsense".

"It's simply not true," Demetriou told 3AW radio.

"The fact of the matter is, shortly after the (Australian Crime Commission) announcement in Canberra ... we sought an urgent meeting with ASADA and the Federal Government representatives to make sure that we could, one, make public what the issue was in AFL football ... and secondly, we sought to get clarification very quickly about the sanctions that were under the WADA code and in what circumstances could those sanctions be reduced.

"Then we instructed Essendon to co-operate fully. That's being professional, it's being diligent, it's being thorough.

"We don't even know what the investigation is going to find. I'm not quite sure how you do a deal based on what you don't know."

An ASADA spokesman said yesterday: "ASADA has not offered a zero sanction to any athlete or support person."

Essendon coach James Hird said ASADA had not found a positive test during its "exhaustive" investigation of the club.

An AFL sanction seems certain against the club given the revelation of practices including intravenous infusions and off-site injections.

Hird said the investigation had to be exhaustive for the benefit of all parties.

"In terms of speculation about deals, about what supplements were taken, speculation is one thing but the facts are another thing," Hird said.

"Our players right now have not tested positive for one performance-enhancing drug, I think that's important for people to know.

"The NRL and Cronulla have their issues like we have our issues and we'll let them handle those.

"The Essendon Football Club invited ASADA and the AFL to come in and investigate our club and we've been fully co-operative with that investigation."

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Des denies Bunnies dunnies

Secret weapon ... Souths could make use of all-important portaloos. Source:Supplied

Portable toilets are shaping as South Sydney Rabbitohs' secret weapon in Friday night's Good Friday blockbuster against Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs.

Canterbury coach Des Hasler is making life uncomfortable for the Rabbitohs, who always prepare in their own custom-made dressing room when playing at ANZ Stadium.

However, the Souths-only room shares common toilet facilities with the home sheds, which the Bulldogs intend to use as hosts.

As they did for last year's round 12 clash, Canterbury are adamant their players must have exclusive use of those bathroom facilities.

But annoyed Rabbitohs officials aren't pointing the finger at their Bulldogs opposite. They blame the intensely competitive Hasler, because before his arrival at Belmore last year, there was never an issue between the clubs at ANZ Stadium.

"Canterbury and other clubs (Parramatta and St George Illawarra) who hosted games at ANZ Stadium would just use the away rooms, because there's absolutely no difference with the home rooms," a Souths insider said. "But all that changed last year and we still can't work it out."

On Thursday night, Souths will make a decision on whether to bring in half a dozen portable loos which will enable them to stay in their own dressing-room, or move across the tunnel to the away sheds.

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