Ah howay man lads!

The Mag

·2 febbraio 2025

Ah howay man lads!

The misery of defeat to Bournemouth two weeks ago, was offset by the tremendous run preceding it and the concession that the opponent had played a blinder.

A two week period that only involved a routine win at Southampton gave belief that things were comfortably back on track and I was daft enough to write an article about how eight attainable wins should secure Champions League football.

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Enter the Mr Hyde version of Newcastle United to send the mood back down the toilet.

This was an uninspiring first half, with the infuriating business of Bruno sending us the wrong way down the pitch again.

The advantage to this can be getting your noses in front first half and managing the game out after that. Like I say, the opening 45 was uninspiring but United were just about value for their half time lead. Gordon’s meandering run led to a centre that evaded Isak but was smashed in at the back post by Jacob Murphy, celebrating 200 appearances for United with his 16th goal for the club.

There had been a glimpse moments earlier when Tonali had unleashed a howitzer from just outside the box that smashed the paint off the crossbar and would have been goal of the season so far, had it sneaked under it. I was daft enough at this point to compare matters with the Leicester game, where kicking the wrong way had led to sneaking a narrow lead that was capitalised on second half when the opposition needed to come out a bit.

The opposition did indeed come out a bit, but they were given the opportunity to do so as United posted an awful, terrible second half showing, that deserved to get beat. The usual problems, as pedestrian football to bring the ball out from the back created problems as Fulham harried and harangued the midfield. This led to the killer equaliser as Tonali’s misplaced pass saw a quick break that the annoying Raul Jimenez finished off.

There was further evidence of this not being our day as Isak, having had an off afternoon, worked himself a shooting opportunity, only to emulate Tonali’s efforts in cracking the bar. It feels outrageous the amount of times we’ve hit the goal frame this season and this was one of the occasions that narrow margin would cost us.

The referee became the target in the build up to the winner, as Gordon was bundled over on the edge of the box in what looked like a foul. Fulham broke and were awarded a free kick of their own that many took issue with, but was probably right. The Cottagers were well and truly exhibiting a classic display of timewasting as they had long lies on the ground at the slightest touch. This was increased tenfold after Muniz darted in at the front post to give them the lead from the free kick.

This was another cause for concern as Dubravka extensively organised a short wall of Gordon and Murphy, only for Fulham to use the exact gap that should have been shorn up to score. An annoying factor is that it seems like the last two home games have seen every meaningful shot on goal end up in the net. Despite Dubravka’s settling effect on the back four in possession, I wouldn’t be shocked to see Nick Pope back in goal this week.

Another familiar problem emerged as the support from the bench ineffective. I don’t know what has happened with Joe Willock, whether he’s not fully recovered from his injury problems or if they’ve had a permanent effect, but his contribution this afternoon was woeful. Sickening online abuse received by the player is the sort of thing that just shouldn’t happen nowadays but the internet has become a rancid pit of such despicable behaviour.

Lloyd Kelly’s weak header may prove to be his last action as a Newcastle player, as he is apparently now en route to Juventus in a deal that is outstandingly good business for the club, but absolutely not for the strength of the squad in the remainder of this season.

Many will point to the Kelly exit as further evidence of why reinforcements can and should be sought this next day or so. While this would surely help, it’s worth mentioning that our goalscorer today, and one of our better performers, was the player whose position we’d be looking to beef up. I wouldn’t suggest that no new signing can switch around the inability to play through a low block and hard press, which has now seen us drop 12 poor points at home this season. We require an unlikely West Ham win v Chelsea to stay fifth, but the ominous fixtures ahead may see the league position suffer a tad in the short term.

As I said in that article about 66 points being the target, this is retrievable in the final third of the season, but these kind of performances need to be eradicated in the winnable run of remaining matches at SJP.

The focus now though, switches to the cups. This pair of weak home showings has rightly accelerated fear that Arsenal can come here and flip their two goal deficit, which would be just about the most crushing defeat any of us has known since Pardew didn’t do derbies.

The good news on this is that the Gunners will not be able to sit back and break as most of our conquerors have, as they need to get at the game. The bad news is that in recent weeks we haven’t looked like the side that has ruthlessly picked off this approach when anyone has tried it this season.

A trip to Wembley would allow the league ups and downs to slide out of focus a tad, and progress in the FA Cup would add to that before the difficult trip to the Etihad. It would be just like this season if United actually got something there to replace the points botched today.

The mood today is not good. It may well be that four days proves to be a long time in football and there’s a very different feeling around the corner.

Newcastle 1 Fulham 2 – Saturday 1 February 2025 3pm

Goals:

Newcastle United:

Murphy 36

Fulham:

Jimenez 61, Muniz 82

Possession was Newcastle 47% Fulham 53%

Total shots were Newcastle 11 Fulham 15

Shots on target were Newcastle 4 Fulham 4

Corners were Newcastle 4 Fulham 7

Touches in the box Newcastle 32 Fulham 30

Newcastle team v Fulham: