Jamie Vardy scored twice to seal a 3-1 win for Leicester on Saturday
Saturday 9 March 2019 19:07, UK
Scott Parker rued "costly mistakes" as Leicester pushed Fulham closer to relegation with a 3-1 win at the King Power Stadium.
Floyd Ayite cancelled out Youri Tielemans' opener, but slack defending allowed Jamie Vardy to score twice as Fulham were consigned to a 21st Premier League defeat of the season.
The Cottagers are now 13 points adrift of safety after victories for Cardiff and Southampton on Saturday, and caretaker manager Parker believes the positives of the second-half display count for very little after another self-inflicted loss.
He said: "We're in a league where if you make little errors, you get punished, and the ball normally ends up in the back of your net.
"That's happened a lot to us this year, and that's probably the most disappointing thing today because in the second half we played really well, but you forget about that when you look at the end result.
"Certainly I saw signs of encouragement in the second half. When we got it back to 1-1 I really thought we were in the ascendancy, and if any team was going to get another goal it was us. We were controlling the game pretty well, but we made a costly mistake."
Havard Nordtveit was punished for a misplaced pass as James Maddison fed Vardy for his milestone strike with 12 minutes remaining - and Fulham rode their luck at times during an opening period in which they failed to register an attempt on goal.
Ayite's scrappy leveller breathed new life into the travel-sick visitors, and Aleksandar Mitrovic was denied by Kasper Schmeichel as Fulham threatened to complete an unlikely turnaround.
Parker acknowledges that the club's chances of staging a miraculous escape are fading with eight games remaining, but the former midfielder does not expect his players to give up without a fight - starting against Liverpool next Sunday, live on Sky Sports.
"We have to keep going, driving on and raising standards," he added.
"We have to keep a belief about us and there's a longer view and a bigger picture that we need to see beyond this season. Working out where we go from here will only be seen as an improvement looking ahead to next year.
"Next season should be in the players' minds, no doubt. We are down the bottom because we've not been good enough, and the players would say the same. With eight games left, this is still massive for every one of them."
