Fulham ran out 3-1 winners in a one-sided West London derby on Saturday lunchtime, with star men Ross McCormack, Moussa Dembele and Tom Cairney netting for the visitors.

The result was the Cottager's first win in six, and Slavisa Jokanovic's first as manager.

It was the club's ever reliable striker who put them ahead, blasting it past Alex Smithies in the QPR net after a beautiful ball from Tom Cairney that split the defence wide open. That goal was his 16th in the league this season, putting him joint second on the leaderboard with Hull's Abel Hernandez.

It didn't take long for Dembele to double their lead, heading in from Jamie O'Hara's pin-point ball from the left wing. And Fulham's goalscoring was over inside 12 miraculous minutes after Dembele's shot trickled into Cairney's path, who made no mistake whilst side-footing into the net.

This is a massive confidence boost for Jokanovic's men, who were by far the better team throughout the 90 minutes, and definitely deserved to make the short trip home with the three points.

The only complaint the Serbian might have is that they switched off from a corner in stoppage time, allowing Tjarron Chery to claim a consolation goal.

This will not go down well in Jimmy Floyd Hasslebaink's books, with neither of his January signings Abdenasser El Khayati or Conor Washington creating too many decent chances, and their team looks in trouble with their inability to score following the sale of Charlie Austin.

QPR have slipped to 14th place, but are within three points tenth place, so it would conceiveable to see them rocket back up the table if their form is sorted out. Fulham, on the other hand, climb to 18th, ahead of Blackburn and now have a six point cushion between themselves and the relegation zone.

With that in mind, here are THREE things we learned from Saturday's derby:

1) McCormack, Dembele and Cairney each could have won man of the match

There are very few matches where all of your best players perform at their best, and today was one of them for the Cottagers. McCormack looked as good as ever, and based on Saturday's performance deserves a ticket to the Premier League; whilst Dembele scored an excellent header before hitting the post to eventually set up Cairney's goal.

However, most fans and neutrals are agreed that Tom Cairney was the clear man of the match.

A goal and an assist statistically shows that, but his overall play was excellent. The number ten finished with an 80% pass accuracy, although it was pretty hard to remember a pass he put wrong.

Granted, the QPR defence and midfield didn't have anywhere near their best day, but Cairney ripped them apart with some beautiful diagonal balls between the lines, with one setting up McCormack to score his side's first.

The 25-year old is having a good run of late; and was voted Fulham's man of the match on their official club website following their 1-1 draw with Derby last weekend.

The former Hull and Blackburn man is in the form of his life, and will be hoping that he, alongside his team mates, will see Fulham push on away from the drop zone this season.

Can Cairney lead Fulham back up the table where they belong?

2) 'Can we play you every week?'

Of the last ten matches between these two rivals, Fulham have won eight, including 3-1 on Saturday, and 4-0 earlier this season.

Fulham are enjoying their local derbies of late, and their latest performance showed us that they have plenty of confidence playing Rangers.

Andy Lonergan, despite not having much to do, made some excellent saves and will be pointing fingers at his defenders for sloppily conceding late on. The much maligned Dan Burn seems to have turned a corner too, with two back to back excellent games. Bringing back Fernando Amorebieta back from his loan spell at Middlesbrough looks a good move too.

Their attacking force speaks for itself, as they are the joint-third best attack in the division. With their defensive line up coming into some form, they could be in for a promising last third of the season.

3) Architects of their own downfall?

QPR looked woeful on Saturday. They are without a holding midfielder who can interrupt the play when they need it, and since the sale of Austin have only scored three goals in four games.

Hasselbaink, who took over at Loftus Road following a highly successful spell at Burton Albion, has raided his former club with the signing of Abdenasser El Khayati, their top scorer at the time. He also bought Conor Washington from Peterborough, and signing players from lower divisions seems to have taken its toll on QPR.

A side who was relegated from the Premier League last season, and had ambitions to win this division before the season started, perhaps should not be buying from the third tier.

It appears that Hasselbaink is playing the long game, refreshing the squad after some time with players that were just not up to scratch. Both El Khayati and Washington are promising players for the future, but they have no striker in their squad that can immediately make an impact.

QPR fans may well ask themselves whether it was worth a stab in the dark and chasing the signature of Jordan Rhodes in January.

QPR and Fulham fans...What did you make of the match? Where can QPR realistically finish this season? How important are McCormack, Dembele and Cairney to Fulham's success? Let us know what you think in the comments below!