Who knows what might have happened if Fulham’s Raúl Jiménez had not been sent off, somewhat contentiously, midway through the first half but an initially fragile Newcastle ultimately made the most of their numerical advantage.
Well before the end the psychological damage sustained by Eddie Howe’s team during a preceding trio of consecutive defeats looked, if not quite fully repaired, decently patched up.
Along the way to a win which lifts Newcastle to sixth place, the 17-year-old midfielder Lewis Miley scored his first senior goal in the course of an outstanding all round performance after stepping off the bench to replace the injured Joelinton.
“To have that composure to score a massive goal in front of the Gallowgate End is something else,” said Howe. “ What I like most about Lewis is his emotionless persona on the pitch. He doesn’t beat himself up when things go wrong and he didn’t get carried away after he scored either. That’s the hallmark of a great player.”
While Howe was forced to re-arrange his back four after Fabian Schär hobbled off in the 14th minute Marco Silva found himself making a rather more significant, thoroughly unwanted, re-shuffle from 4-2-3-1 to 4-4-1 after Jiménez launched into a high, wild, studs up, karate style, challenge on Sean Longstaff which concluded with Fulham’s key striker catching the midfielder in the head with a hip.
It seemed Jiménez had lost all semblance of control, let alone poise, in the wake of being caught in the face by a stray elbow belonging to Jamaal Lascelles. “It was a clear elbow from Lascelles, he knew Raúl was there,” said Silva pointedly, before courting an FA misconduct charge by suggesting that the referee, Sam Barrott, was not sufficiently experienced. “This was the best example of a referee who did not have the experience to handle the pressure of the home crowd here.”
Although Barrott, initially issued a yellow card – perhaps on the basis that Jiménez did appear to be attempting to pull out at the last moment and had made sure he was no longer leading with his foot – a VAR review prompted the official to change his mind. “Raúl jumped into the player but it’s not something serious, you don’t see something wrong with the other player,” said Silva. “A yellow card was right, I don’t know if VAR are trying to justify their job but a red card felt strange.”
If the Newcastle fans’ consensus was that it had been a case of VAR, for once, working perfectly, their team continued to creak as the memories of those three defeats against Everton, Spurs and Milan loomed large and Howe’s treatment room gained another patient when Joelinton limped off.
By now Fulham had regrouped and, as if temporarily defying gravity, started giving Newcastle a few real counterattacking frights.
Silva’s side last won away in the Premier League on the season’s opening weekend but they had scored 10 goals in their past two games, dictating that even Jiménez’s dismissal could not quite remove the swagger from their often impressively inventive step.
If Alex Iwobi, now Silva’s emergency lone striker, had been wearing his shooting boots they might even have taken a first-half lead but, despite blowing that highly inviting chance Iwobi held the ball up impressively playing a big part in keeping his side in the game until almost the hour mark.
Ditto Bernd Leno. Fulham’s goalkeeper was increasingly involved as Newcastle attacked with second half menace. One save, made one handed from Anthony Gordon – who had earlier hit the bar – was particularly good but even Leno had no answer to Miley when, he seized a loose ball and lashed it low, right footed and unerringly into the far bottom corner after the excellent Bruno Guimarães unhinged Silva’s defence.
The Brazilian performed wonders to beat a trio of tight markers before seeing his attempt at an ensuing shot to ricochet kindly for Miley to become Newcastle’s youngest Premier League goalscorer.
Miguel Almirón soon doubled that advantage, pouncing on another loose ball to shoot home from close range after Antonee Robinson had sent Callum Wilson crashing in the area. Following a short hiatus while VAR checked for a possible offside against Wilson, a goal created by Gordon’s initial through pass stood.
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Dan Burn added a third when, despite Leno managing to block his initial header on the line, he made no mistake with the rebound.
All that remained was for a smile of pure joy to spread across Miley’s face as Howe hugged him at the final whistle.
