Fulham blow chance to escape relegation zone after collapse against Aston Villa

Aleksandar Mitrovic gives visitors lead but three conceded goals sees London club remain in bottom three

Trezeguet (right) celebrates scoring his and Aston Villa's second goal against Fulham at Villa Park. PA

Fulham's hopes of Premier League suffered a massive blow after conceding three goals in the space of nine second-half minutes to crash to a 3-1 defeat at Aston Villa on Sunday.

Scott Parker's side looked poised to climb out of the bottom three when Aleksandar Mitrovic gave them the lead just past the hour mark after a Tyrone Mings mistake.

But everything went wrong for the Londoners as substitute Trezeguet's double turned the game on its head. The Egyptian equalised in the 78th minute with a crisp finish and volleyed his side in front three minutes later after some sloppy Fulham defending.

Newly-capped England striker Ollie Watkins settled the issue in the 87th minute with a close-range finish.

A victory for Fulham would have seen them move above Newcastle United into 17th place on goal difference but they remain three points behind having also played a game more.

"It's a difficult one to be honest. We had a poor 15 minutes after we got our noses in front," Parker told Sky Sports. "I am disappointed with the way it goes. They got into the game at 1-1 and they were easy goals, silly goals. That has let us down.

"It's easy to pick the players up. We were in an unbelievable position, this is a bump on the road. We have proven that we can respond and regroup all season. We will be brutally honest with ourselves, we were not good enough for 15 minutes but there are seven games left and everything to play for."

Villa are up to ninth with 44 points and will still believe they can qualify for a European place.

"When we got into the final third our movement was a bit slow. It just wasn't falling for us. But we dug in, got the chances in the end and saw the game out," Watkins said.

"Trezeguet works so hard so he deserves it. He's always getting in there and credit to him.

"We haven't come from a goal down and won very often so we've shown character. In the last few weeks we've been trying but it's not come off for us. Hopefully we can go on a run now and get back to how we were playing at the start of the season."