…Leicester City netted three times in the second half but left it too late to get anything out of the game.

Leicester’s hopes of avoiding relegation were handed a damaging blow against Fulham as Willian inspired the hosts to a memorable 5-3 win at Craven Cottage on Monday.

Fulham opened the scoring through a Willian free-kick before strikes from Carlos Vinicius and Tom Cairney powered them into a 3-0 half-time lead.

Cairney added another after the restart before Harvey Barnes pulled a goal back for the visitors, who then saw Jamie Vardy miss a penalty in the 66th minute, BBC Sport reports.

Willian re-established Fulham’s four-goal lead with another fine strike before Maddison netted Leicester’s second with a spot-kick and Barnes scored a late third.

The Foxes fell behind in the 10th minute when keeper Daniel Iversen misjudged Willian’s wide free-kick and the ball bounced underneath him before nestling in the bottom corner.

Vinicius’ goal finished off a fine counter-attacking move before Cairney scored on just his third league start of the season with an impressive curling finish.

Trailing by three goals at the break, Leicester were booed off by the visiting fans and the mood only got bleaker when Cairney added Fulham’s fourth in the 51st minute.

However, Barnes gave his side a glimmer of hope, before Vardy was caught by Bernd Leno midway through the second half – but when the striker missed the resulting spot-kick, any thoughts of an unlikely comeback ended.

Fulham soon added a fifth against a porous defence.

The introduction of Wilfred Ndidi made a real difference to the Foxes’ midfield but the match was already over by that point.

Leicester having now failed to keep a clean sheet in any of their past 20 games, an unwanted Premier League record.

Inspired by their impressive first-half showing, Fulham have equalled a club record of 14 wins in a single Premier League season.

The Cottagers completed a top-flight double over Leicester for the first time since 2004, thanks mainly to the excellent attacking work of Willian and Cairney.

Fulham remain 10th, two points behind west London rivals Brentford.

They need five points from their final three games to equal their record top-flight points tally of 53, from the 2008-09 season.

Fulham face Southampton away in their next match on Saturday before taking on Crystal Palace and Manchester United, while Leicester host Liverpool next Monday.