Blackburn Rovers 2 Fulham 0

After 10 games and more than fourteen and a half hours without a goal, the DR Congo international had started to feel like he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.

All strikers thrive on scoring goals so to go two and a half months without one was a big test of character for a player who had never previously encountered such problems in a career that has taken in spells at some of Europe's most glamorous clubs.

One can only imagine then what went through the African's mind as that drought finally came to an end in somewhat bizarre circumstances.

Nonda's first goal since he bagged the winner in a 1-0 victory at Middlesbrough on September 23 owed as much to the eccentric goalkeeping of Fulham's Jan Lastuvka as it did to the striker's poaching instincts. Not that he was bothered!

When you are desperate to get back in the groove, you will take any smidgen of good fortune that comes your way.

Thankfully, Lastuvka and a kamikaze Fulham defence were in a benevolent mood, and Nonda gratefully accepted their act of generosity, pouncing to score with a wonderfully improvised finish.

Suddenly, the smile was back on his face again, and a second goal shortly afterwards from fellow striker Benni McCarthy - who also got back in the old routine after his own lean spell - was enough to secure Blackburn Rovers' first Premier League win since Wigan were dispatched here on October 1.

"It was a big relief for me to score," admitted Nonda afterwards.

"I'd gone two months without a goal so it was good for my confidence to finally score and hopefully now I can get more and more.

"This is the first time I've experienced a run like this, but all you can do is work more and more.

"When you're a striker and you don't score goals, you begin to start rushing things because you want it so badly.

"But the manager just told me to continue working hard and the goals would come for me.

"Now I'm starting to feel good, I understand the way we are trying to play, and I will continue to learn and get better."

Nonda deserves to be lauded for the way he's worked through his problems during what has been a testing start to his Premiership career, but credit must also go to Mark Hughes, too, for sticking by the striker when it must have been tempting to withdraw him from the firing line the longer his barren spell went on.

"Chris is a goalscorer and he wants to score goals all the time," said the Rovers boss. "If he doesn't score then he thinks he's not contributing. But I knew he was and I told him that.

"I told him that he had to keep working hard and he'd get his reward, and thankfully that's happened today, which will only help him."

The challenge for Nonda, and Rovers, now is to build on this performance because what happens over the next month will ultimately shape the rest of the season.

With winnable games against Charlton Athletic and Newcastle coming up in the next five days, it's imperative the momentum from this victory is carried forward if Rovers are to mount a sustained charge for a place in the top 10.

On this evidence, Rovers and Fulham are both in false positions in the league.

Hughes' side barely needed to break sweat here to overpower a Fulham team that had amazingly beaten Arsenal three days earlier - a result that had taken them to the dizzy heights of 10th position in the table.

The game was over as a contest by the 24th minute, by which point Fulham were trailing 2-0 and looking anything but a top 10 Premiership side.

In this corresponding fixture last season, it took two goals of the highest quality, from Morten Gamst Pedersen and Tugay, to finally kill off the Londoners.

This time, Rovers didn't need to be quite so sophisticated in putting Chris Coleman's charges to the sword. In fact, both goals came via route one after Hughes had ordered his players to adopt a slightly more direct approach in the absence of Tugay, the team's conductor.

That's not to say this was a scrappy victory - far from it.

Rovers won with embarrassing ease and, had they been slightly more clinical in front of goal, then the margin of their victory would have been even more emphatic.

The tone for the afternoon was set in the sixth minute.

Zat Knight should have dealt with Stephane Henchoz's long ball forward, but the Fulham defender fatally allowed Nonda to get the wrong side of him.

Czech goalkeeper Lastuvka, who was making his Premiership debut, then tried to anticipate the danger by moving to the right of goal, where he thought the ball would land.

What he didn't bank on, however, was Nonda getting a decisive touch - the striker stretching out a boot to divert it into the space that the keeper had just vacated.

If that was a soft goal then so, too, was the second one 18 minutes later.

Another long ball, this time delivered by the boot of Lucas Neill, found McCarthy one-on-one with former Rovers defender Ian Pearce.

The South African, who had started in an offside position, showed great strength to shrug off Pearce, eventually making enough space to get off a shot.

His drive then struck Pearce and looped over the hapless Lastuvka before nestling in the far corner.

With Fulham all at sea, Rovers had numerous chances to extend their advantage either side of half-time.

There was an astonishing miss from Pedersen, then Lastuvka thwarted both Brett Emerton and Neill.

McCarthy, who was otherwise excellent, also missed a sitter in the closing stages following another probing cross from the marauding Emerton.

Fulham finally threatened in the 87th minute when Claus Jensen fired a free kick through a ruck of players, but the ever-alert Brad Friedel showed incredible reflexes to shovel the ball around his post.

So Rovers are back on track in the Premiership - much to the relief of Nonda and everyone else in the Blackburn camp.

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