Ashley Young"s shot, deflected off Zat Knight, cancelled out Clint Dempsey"s first-half effort and, after Chris Baird had been sent off, Maloney struck in the dying seconds to give Villa their first win of the season.

Six minutes into the game, the Cottagers stunned Villa by taking the lead through Dempsey whose rising leftfooted drive beat Scott Carson via the underside of the crossbar. Gabriel Agbonlahor had a golden chance after 35 minutes but slipped his shot the wrong side of the post and in first half injurytime Carew thudded a header against the post from a Young corner.

Within five minutes of the restart the home side were back on level terms. ReoCoker"s pass found Young in space on the left flank and he cut into the area before beating Keller with a crossshot which took a deflection off Zat Knight into the far corner of the net. That came a minute before Kamara had been close to doubling Fulham"s lead with a low curling shot which defeated the dive of Carson but rebounded off a post to safety.

Villa were now in the ascendancy but Carew spurned decent chances, heading wide from a Barry centre and then heading just over from a Young cross. The visitors were reduced to 10 men with 20 minutes remaining as Baird picked up a second yellow card for a challenge on Young. Dempsey almost won the game for Fulham in a rare attack but Carson did well to keep out his close-range header before Maloney"s late winner.