This part of west London has never been a happy hunting ground for Neil Warnock. His 11th attempt to record a league win at Craven Cottage ended in failure after a superb strike from Ryan Babel shattered Cardiff’s hopes of piling the pressure on Brighton in the battle to avoid relegation.

With two games left to play and now trailing by four points after Chris Hughton’s side drew 1-1 against Newcastle, it will take all of their manager’s expertise in escapology to survive now. Yet while Warnock refused to blame the referee Chris Kavanagh’s decision not to award a penalty in the first half for his team’s shortcomings, he did acknowledge that the death of the £15m striker Emiliano Sala in January had left his side short of firepower as they chased an equaliser here.

“You get what you pay for,” he said in reference to Babel’s winner. “It just brings it home to me how disappointing the whole Emiliano tragedy was.

“I felt he could have scored 10 goals between January and the end of the season, which is what we’ve been lacking. It’s been blow after blow really.”

These two clubs know each other well after slugging it out for the second automatic promotion spot last season behind Wolves, with Cardiff coming out on top as Fulham eventually went up via the play-offs. However, the contrast between their approaches to life in the top flight could not have been greater, with Fulham having spent more than £100m on recruits in the summer but still ending up being relegated on 2 April whereas their opponents found themselves still in with a fighting chance of survival despite one of the smallest budgets in the division.

Yet despite their woes this season, Scott Parker has instigated something of a revival at Fulham since relegation was confirmed and the former England midfielder should now be in line to be handed the permanent role at the end of the season after a third successive victory that equalled the club’s Premier League best.

On a blustery day by the Thames this was always going be a test of both sides’ mettle but Cardiff certainly had reason to feel aggrieved in the eighth minute when Sean Morrison was dragged to the ground in the box by Aleksandar Mitrovic. Warnock, who was otherwise complimentary to the officials, will surely have noted the similarity to last week’s incident against Liverpool involving Morrison and Mohamed Salah that led to a penalty.

Having escaped at one end, Mitrovic was close to giving Fulham the lead after he was set up by Babel but the outstanding Neil Etheridge was there to beat his shot away. Denis Odoi, who had already been accidentally struck in the face with the ball by Aron Gunnarsson after being fouled in the third minute, then came to the rescue for his side as Oumar Niasse was bearing down on goal, heading the ball back to his goalkeeper just in time but taking another whack in the head, this time from his own teammate Maxime Le Marchand. The Belgian seemed to be out cold as he hit the ground and received treatment on the pitch for nine minutes before being carried off. Thankfully he had recovered enough to watch the second half from the stands.

Warnock emerged early after the break and headed over to Cardiff’s travelling support in an effort to raise the atmosphere. Yet he was grateful to see Mitrovic spurn another golden opportunity just two minutes in after Tom Cairney’s intelligent cutback ended with the Serbian placing his shot embarrassingly wide.

Danny Ward was summoned from the bench to replace Niasse in attack as Cardiff’s sense of urgency grew, with the fans offering a rendition of ‘all we are saying is give us a goal’. They were duly granted one, but at the wrong end as Babel rounded off Cyrus Christie’s mazy run with a brilliant strike from outside the area.

“It was a moment of sheer class and it deserved to be the matchwinner,” said Parker.

Cardiff could have rescued a point had Junior Hoilett not struck the crossbar late on and Sergio Rico not saved well from Morrison’s header. But, while Cardiff will definitely not give up until the end, Warnock now knows they need fortune to smile on them to stand any chance.