Vassell heads the winner for Villa
The Cottagers had Carlos Bocanegra sent off for an horrendous tackle and may face censure from the Football Association after a bottle was thrown in the direction of an assistant referee.
They could scarcely have made a better start and went in front after just 52 seconds through a fierce Luis Boa Morte strike. But it was downhill all the way after that as Edwin van der Sar's blunder gifted Juan Pablo Angel a 12th-minute equaliser. Things went from bad to worse when the home defence went AWOL to let Darius Vassell, just 5ft 7in tall, nod in the winner just after the half-hour.
The goal was a timely reminder to England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, whose assistant Tord Grip was here to run the rule over Vassell ahead of next Wednesday's England friendly in Portugal.
Controversy arrived by the bucketload in the final 15 minutes.
First, referee Barry Knight turned down Fulham's penalty appeals when Boa Morte's cross clearly struck Jlloyd Samuel's arm. The game had to be halted a minute later when the assistant referee, just 15 yards from the incident, alerted Knight's attention to a bottle which had been thrown towards him from a section of Fulham fans. Two minutes later, Bocanegra was guilty of one of the worst tackles of the season a wild, two-footed lunge on Mark Delaney which left the Villa man on a stretcher and the Fulham full-back sent off.
Villa boss David O'Leary was furious and had to be restrained by the ref. However, a fourth win on the spin will cheer the Dubliner's mood, as will the manner in which his side continued their surge up the table they are now into the top seven.
Van der Sar, Volz, Knight, Pearce, Bocanegra, Malbranque, Clark (Petta 45), Djetou (Hayles 70), Sean Davis, Boa Morte, McBride.
Sorensen, Delaney (De la Cruz 77), Mellberg, Johnsen, Samuel, Hendrie (Ridgewell 89), Solano, Hitzlsperger, Barry (Whittingham 80), Vassell, Angel.
B Knight (Kent).
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