Newcastle 1-0 Fulham
Back in October, Newcastle United embarrassed Fulham with a 4-1 victory at the Cottage. Nathaniel Chalobah was sent off and the home team also suffered injuries to Aleksandar Mitrovic and debutant Layvin Kurzawa.
Since then, Eddie Howe's men have proved unbeatable in the Premier League. So last Sunday's return fixture looked really daunting. But Fulham have also done well in the interim and they very nearly held the Geordies to a draw.
Aleksandar Mitrovic had served his suspension and it was Antonee Robinson's turn to miss a match for getting one yellow card too many. The American's replacement – Issa Diop – was soon in action blocking Sean Longstaff, one of the goal-scorers at the Cottage. Callum Wilson, another who has plagued us in the past, had three chances foiled by goalkeeper Bernd Leno.
Despite its importance the match was lacking in real excitement until the last half hour.
Fabian Schar almost scored from a free kick and this seemed to galvanise the Whites. Bobby DeCordova-Reid sped down the left wing and fed Andreas Pereira. As the Brazilian advanced on goal his arm was clearly grabbed by our former defender Dan Burn. Then Kieran Trippier collided with Bobby DeCordova-Reid. The referee Robert Jones allowed play to continue, and the action had switched to the Fulham end before he got a message to check the Trippier incident on VAR.
This led to a belated penalty award – but Marco Silva was furious that the earlier incident had gone unpunished. He was convinced that Burn had denied Pereira a goal-scoring opportunity and should therefore have received a red card.
Once again, the officials seemed to have overlooked a foul because it was committed in the penalty area; on this occasion they followed up by punishing a lesser offence, the collision.
These considerations would not have mattered so much if the penalty had led to a goal.
Fluffed
Mitrovic had fluffed his previous spot-kick because he was unsettled by the opposition's gamesmanship. This time, he looked calmer despite all the delaying tactics which Mr Jones allowed to happen.
This was Mitro's chance to show what Newcastle had lost by letting him leave. Finally able to take the kick he sent the ball beyond Nick Pope's reach and turned to exult. Unfortunately, the officials noticed that the striker had slipped as he took the penalty and had inadvertently kicked the ball twice, rendering the goal invalid.
Fulham could still leave with a point (they scarcely deserved more as they never managed a shot on target) and with a minute left the score remained 0-0.
As Newcastle besieged the visitors' penalty area a swirling cross from Longstaff allowed Callum Wilson another shot at goal. The ball cannoning off Diop's back, Wilson was able to pass to Alexander Isak, who headed into the net from close range.
This result put Newcastle third in the table but did not dislodge Fulham from sixth place, a point behind our next opponents Tottenham Hotspur.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and unless specifically stated are not necessarily those of Hammersmith & Fulham Council.
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