Johnson double heaps more misery on Bruce and Wigan

A double by England striker Andy Johnson gave Fulham their first win in seven matches with a 2-0 victory over Wigan here on Wednesday in their Premier League clash.

The goals, one in each half and his first for the club, brought up a 100 career league goals for the 27-year-old former Everton striker and inflicted the fourth straight Premiership defeat on the Steve Bruce coached side.

Bruce had made several changes after his side's limp display in the 4-0 defeat by Aston Villa on Saturday, dropping Olivier Kapo completely and relegating Daniel De Ridder and error-prone defender Titus Bramble to the bench.

Fulham got off to an ideal start as former West Ham fullback Paul Konchesky got down the flank and his cross was met by Johnson, who appeared to be offside but, disregarding appeals for that, he tucked the ball past Chris Kirkland.

It was all Fulham and they could well have been 2-0 up just before the half-hour mark as Zoltan Gera kept the ball in on the touchline and his ball inside was on its way to Johnson but Maynor Figueroa just beat him to the ball.

Wigan, who have now won just once in 23 meetings with London-based clubs in the Premier League, had precious little to offer in attack with just a shot by the Premier League's leading scorer Amr Zaki on target, and that was easily saved by Mark Schwarzer.

Fulham started the second-half as bouncily as they had the first and should have been 2-0 to the good three minutes in when Gera's shot beat Kirkland but came back off the post.

The Londoners finally got the second goal they merited on the hour mark. Johnson squirmed free of the Wigan defence and shot across Kirkland's goal to see it nestle in the net leaving Bruce looking a tormented soul on the touchline.

The lively Johnson looked for his hat-trick and would have done so seven minutes from the end but for Kirkland bravely rushing from his line to smother the ball – for which he received treatment.