Martin Jol and Mark Hughes have both downplayed talk of an altercation after Fulham secured victory from a tense west London derby at QPR.

The clubs’ once-amicable relationship is far more fraught now, partly due to Bobby Zamora’s defection to join former Cottagers manager Hughes at Loftus Road.

Having seen 10-man Rangers lose 1-0 to Pavel Pogrebnyak’s early goal, there appeared to be an issue in the post-match handshake between Jol and his QPR counterpart.

Asked what happened on the touchline, Hughes said: “I offered my hand and he shook it readily.

“I congratulated him on a good performance by his team. They won the game and I don’t have a problem with that.

“I took exception because I thought he was going to tap me on the head, which I deemed to be slightly patronising so I brushed his arm away. That is all it was. No big deal.”

Jol echoed the QPR manager’s version of events, saying in the post-match press conference: “We shook hands but maybe I made it a bit too personal, you know?

“I tried to grab his shoulder and he didn’t like that because he is a tough guy. He is a winner, he wants to win. Maybe he doesn’t like me, I don’t know.”

There had been talk of a rift between Jol and his predecessor after quotes emanated last month following Hughes’ appointment at Loftus Road. The reports suggested the Dutchman had questioned the QPR manager’s staying power, although he denied making such comments.

“They asked me if I would like to stay longer at Fulham and then they made a connection,” Jol said.

“I said ‘on average, you are at a club in the Premier League for two years’ and then the next day they said I had said he was only at his club for one year.

“Everybody knows he was at Wales for four years and Blackburn for four or five years.

“That was not my quote and I told him as well. We sent him an email of the whole press conference and that was enough from me.”

When told of the supposed email, Hughes said he did not recall receiving it but that there was a “little bit of communication between both PR departments”.

The QPR boss dismissed the spat as “no big deal” and was more concerned with his side’s fortunes on the pitch.

The Rs have now won only once in 14 league games after Saturday’s defeat in which debutant Samba Diakite was sent off in the 33rd minute – the third home league match out of four a QPR player has received their marching orders in the first period.

“I don’t think the discipline was bad,” Hughes said. “Obviously it was his debut and he wanted to make an impression.

“He was enthusiastic but I don’t think he was reckless. He mistimed challenges and unfortunately for him he doesn’t know the league as of yet.

“In fairness, I take responsibility for that as in the ideal world you want to introduce him to the Premier League a bit more slowly. But given our circumstances we need good players on the pitch and I think up to the point of his sending off I thought he was excellent and arguably our best player.

“Obviously we need to keep the full complement of players on the pitch because if we don’t it will be difficult for us.

“We haven’t managed that in our last two home games so it is pretty clear where our real problem lies.”

The result means QPR are without a win against their near neighbours for almost 29 years, something that delighted the 3115 visiting supporters and manager Jol.

“I thought they really wanted to take the game to us,” he said. “They were up for it but we were up for it as well.

“We played some excellent football in the first 20 minutes and the first half was good after the sending off.

“We saw from the first day he came, Pavel is a good player.

“He has good quality, a good boy and that is exactly the information I had on him from the two Dutch coaches that worked with him at Russia, Dick Advocaat and Guus Hiddink.

“We are very pleased he came in after selling Bobby Zamora.”