Zamora inspires Fulham victory

Manchester United's pursuit of the Barclays Premier League title suffered a humiliating setback with a 3-0 thrashing at Craven Cottage inspired by Bobby Zamora.

Danny Murphy opened the scoring from 30-yards after capitalising on a blunder by Paul Scholes and Zamora continued his rich vein of form with the second a minute after the interval.

It was Zamora's fifth goal in four games and the former West Ham marksman helped to complete the rout by setting-up Damien Duff for the third.

Lacking in imagination and confidence, United's crippling injury list has clearly caught up with them as they suffered a fifth loss of the season.

As early as the 17th minute Fulham looked capable of emulating last season's heroics against the Red Devils - their first defeat of United for 45 years - thanks to a wonderful move started by Clint Dempsey.

The American floated in a long pass to Zamora who expertly chested the ball down into the path of Zoltan Gera but the Hungarian directed his shot too close to goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak.

Duff should have produced a better conclusion to one run into the box but Fulham only had to wait until the 22nd minute to storm into the lead when they capitalised on an error by Scholes.

Darren Fletcher passed to Scholes but he was dispossessed by Murphy, who fired a 30-yard effort into the net.

United's problems deepened a minute into the second half Duff crossed to the far post where Dempsey was able to deflect the ball into the path of Zamora who rifled home from close range.

Fulham added a third in the 75th minute after the visitors failed to clear their lines, allowing the brilliant Zamora to set-up Duff who smashed the ball home from 15 yards out.