Lowly Southampton looked set to surpass the record-low Premier League points tally of 11 it shares with the Derby County team of 2007-2008 thanks to an early goal from Jack Stephens.

Stephens flicked on Ryan Manning’s set-piece delivery in the 14th minute to put the Saints ahead, two minutes after Willian came close with a lovely, curled effort that drifted just wide of the post.

Yet Southampton’s wait to lift itself off 11 points will go on as it suffered a late capitulation, sparked by Marco Silva’s substitutions.

The lively Adama Traore teed up Willian, who hit the woodwork, but fellow sub Emile Smith Rowe pulled Fulham level with a deflected strike in the 72nd minute.

Smith Rowe and Raul Jimenez both went close for the visitors as they probed for a late winner, but it was Sessegnon who finally delivered in the second minute of added time, planting a superb diving header into the bottom-left corner off Traore’s centre.

The win leaves Fulham in eighth place on 51 points, the same as ninth-place Brighton and Hove Albion and two ahead of Bournemouth, which takes on Manchester United on Monday (AEST).

After the win, Silva said Fulham must now treat every Premier League match as a final as it pushes on for European qualification.

“We have to do our job and that is to play each game as a final and win every game that we can,” he said.

“We know to be in the position we are in right now and to be fighting for something important means that this group of players have been doing something very good.

“We have been consistent in our position, most of the time in the top half of the table, and we have to really embrace the challenge to be in our current position.

“It is always hard to break down these sorts of teams because they have nine or ten players around the box.

“They did not want to come and play in our faces, so we had to be patient to break them down, but we did create enough.

“We scored the second goal late, but the reality is that we clearly deserved the three points.”

Southampton's interim boss Simon Rusk, meanwhile, refused to be too downbeat about his side's late capitulation.

“It’s a feeling of disappointment. We scored a late goal last week to get something out of the game and this week we lose a late goal that takes the game away from us," he said.

“That is the balance involved with the joy and pain of football. It's a sore one to take so close to the end of the game.

“The game is not always science, it is about emotion and feeling. It is common sense that you want to protect a lead when you get in front.”