GLYN KIRK/AFP/Getty ImagesAdel Taarabt's brace powered QPR to their first victory of the season on Saturday versus city rivals Fulham.

Adel Taarabt breathed life back into the patient at Loftus Road on Saturday as QPR finally looked capable of surviving to fight another season in the Premier League.

QPR came good at the 17th time of asking thanks to an opposition that should start to look warily at the teams below them in the league, and a killer formation change.

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Harry Redknapp created cohesion and purpose where there previously was none. His new dynamic diamond in the middle of the park of Stephane Mbia, Alejandro Faurlin, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Jamie Mackie created space through the middle for Taarabt to run at a Fulham defence that looked nervous on the back foot.

Wright-Phillips and Mackie's industry gave Armand Traore and Nedum Onouha the confidence to overlap, while Djibril Cisse up front finally looked like he had been schooled in the art of the lone striker; both Taarabt goals were in part thanks to some excellent movement off the ball by the Frenchman.

But this was the magical Moroccan's day. His first goal had pleasing elements of the luck that has deserted us so far this season, striking a Fulham leg on its way past Mark Schwarzer. His second, though, reminded us of the class that he possesses. Picking up the ball on the halfway, he broke through a weak Brede Hangeland tackle, avoided three retreating Cottagers with a mazy run and a couple of step-overs before passing the ball with some pace and aplomb into the corner of the net with the outside of his foot.

A consolation goal made for some nervy moments at the end, but it was a pleasure to witness a defensive performance of an almost faultless standard.

The real battle, though, starts now. The fug of despair has lifted enough to allow fans and players and the new coaching staff to plan for another great escape -- one that is eminently achievable.

Last year, after 28 games we had a paltry 22 points and a run-in that would have frightened the hardiest of campaigners (we played the top six in our last ten games). This year, with a far more benign last ten games, the quicker we can get to 22 points the better.

Wide of the mark

I may have been a little wide of the mark with my prediction that Shaun Derry will put Dimitar Berbatov to bed on Friday, but in my defence, the Bulgarian was well and truly shackled by a midfield diamond that ran the show on Saturday afternoon.

Talking of getting it wrong, I want to point you in the direction of my esteemed colleague -- the Fulham blogger, Phil Mison -- who was disdainful prior to the game and in denial after. He called Djibril Cisse "a joke", Diakite a "poor man's Tiote", while QPR should by rights "be keeping company with the Blackpools and Barnsleys of this world" this season.

"[Adel] Taraabt is too much in love with his own image," Mr. Mison sneers, "promising much but rarely delivers.

"By rights Fulham should win comfortably," he comfortably adds. "The tight pitch and stadium feel does not intimidate us in the way we freeze at places like the Etihad, Villa Park and Old Trafford."

Oh dear.

I hope for Fulham's sake that this does not develop into tit-for-tat schadenfraude like it did with us and Huddersfield Town in the Championship in 2000/1.

We were eventually relegated at their ground at the end of April -- a fact that their supporters took great delight in despite their own precarious position. Sure enough, three weeks later they came down with us. Their fate since? They only just returned to the Championship at the start of this season.

Follow Sean Smith on Twitter @seanshorn

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