West Ham United Ladies overcame a serious injury to striker Kelley Blanchflower and a west London traffic jam score a 2-0 FA Women's Premier League Southern Division win at Queens Park Rangers.
Having arrived shortly before the scheduled 2pm kick-off on Sunday, the Hammers showed no ill-effects from their longer-than-planned journey to come flying out of the blocks and score twice in the first 13 minutes.
Blanchflower (pictured) opened the scoring in spectacular fashion in the eighth minute, collecting the ball 25 yards from goal with space around before running through the defence and sliding the ball confidently under the advancing goalkeeper.
Just five minutes later, Blanchflower was involved again in the build-up to West Ham's second goal. Emma Thomas was put through with a long ball out the to left flank. It appeared Thomas had run the ball too close to the goalline, but her shot from an acute angle beat Sophie Cheadle in the QPR goal.
The home side stemmed the West Ham tide by massing their defensive ranks, with the game squashed into a small area in midfield.
Unfortunately, Blanchflower's next major involvement saw her suffer a suspected fractured collarbone after she fell awkwardly on the edge of the QPR penalty area. The forward was tended to on the pitch by medical staff before paramedics arrived and she was taken to hospital by ambulance.
Emmas Thomas scores the Ladies' second goal at QPR
When the game resumed after a 45-minute delay, it had lost its tempo and only an occasional threat was made on either goal.
With the two -oal advantage West Ham looked comfortable and never in danger but just could not get the goal to finish off the game.
With eight minutes remaining, QPR were reduced to ten players when a melee ended with striker Kasha Petit being red-carded following an altercation with the Hammers' Lindsey Morgan, who was booked.
After losing their opening league game at Millwall Lionesses, Julia Setford's team have now scored back-to-back victories to rise to fourth in the table. West Ham have a weekend off this Sunday before returning to action in the FA Women's Premier League Cup group-stage at Watford on Sunday 23 September.
West Ham United Ladies: Toni-Anne Wayne, Vicky King, Danica Revell, Rosey Sullivan, Jess Barling, Emma Thomas, Stacey Little Lindsey Morgan, Carly Roache, Becky Merritt, Kelley Blanchflower
Subs used: Katie Bottom, Zoe Lipley-Hinton, Fran Tye