Late Villa winner calms O’Neill’s red rage

O'Neill was sent to the stand by Bennett following a halftime rant at the match officials over their failure to add on the full time allocation.

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But his frustrations were eased as Ashley Young's shot deflected off Zat Knight to cancel out Clint Dempsey's sixth-minute opener for the visitors, before substitute Shaun Maloney won the match in injury time.

Fulham have now led three times this season before conceding points to late goals and,to add insult to injury, they were denied a very probable penalty when Craig Gardner handled on the line in the 30th minute to prevent Diomansy Kamara putting them 2-0 up.

"Somewhere along the line we must have upset the footballing gods because it was a bang to rights penalty," said dejected Fulham boss Lawrie Sanchez.

"Yet again a referee has got a big decision wrong. They are having as hard a time as goalkeepers this season. If we had gone 2-0 up I'm sure we could have hung on to the lead."

Relieved O'Neill insisted Villa deserved three points for an 'exhilarating' performance highlighted by what he described as a 'sensational' individual display from Young.

"We had a bit of luck when Fulham hit the post in the second half and if it was a penalty against us it only cancelled out what wasn't a free-kick when Steven Gerrard scored Liverpool's winner against us on the opening day,' he said.

But O'Neill admitted he was wrong to have 'publicly remonstrated' with the officials on the pitch at half time.

"I spoke to the referee and I accept what he told me and I have apologised to him," he said. Dempsey's sixth-minute opener flew in off the bar following a 60-yard run from Kamara. But had Villa's finishing matched their thrilling attacking play they would have been level long before Young cut inside to beat Kasey Keller with a little help from Knight. Fulham had Chris Baird sent off in the 69th minute for a second yellow card and almost took the lead in the 88th minute as Dempsey's header was saved on the line by Scott Carson.

But then Maloney settled the issue in injury-time from Young's perfectly-weighted through pass.