Fulham 3-1 Newcastle

Fulham delivered a fantastic performance to defeat high-flying Newcastle United 3-1 at Craven Cottage on Saturday afternoon.

The Magpies would have gone top of the Premier League with a victory, but were blown away by the Whites in the first half, with Raúl Jiménez and Emile Smith Rowe handing us control of the game.

But within half a minute of the restart, Harvey Barnes had reduced the deficit, leading to a real battle in the second 45.

There always felt like there was another goal in the contest, and thankfully it was Fulham who got it when substitute Reiss Nelson powered one home in front of the Hammy End in stoppage time.

An unchanged Fulham from our last Premier League meeting needed just five minutes to open the scoring, and it came seconds after Newcastle had a goal disallowed.

Joe Willock had strayed offside before teeing up Joelinton, and the Whites went straight up the other end to capitalise.

Raúl fed the ball out wide to Adama Traoré who picked out his teammate in the middle. There was still plenty to do though with his back to goal, but Raúl used one touch to control the ball on his chest, and another to lash into the bottom corner following a nifty spin.

A buoyant Craven Cottage thought they had another goal to celebrate moments later when Smith Rowe opened his body up having collected Alex Iwobi’s pass, but his firm effort smacked the crossbar and looped over.

Iwobi was the creator again when he spotted a clever peel from Raúl behind Dan Burn and sprayed a pass over, but Nick Pope was out quickly to push his shot behind for a corner.

Joachim Andersen saw his header blocked from that set-piece, with the loose ball dropping to Antonee Robinson who fired wide.

Iwobi then stung the palms of Pope from the edge of the box as Fulham continued their rapid start.

The second goal our rampant display deserved was imminent, though. A quick break saw us overload the left flank, with Iwobi and Smith Rowe playing an intricate one-two ending with the latter poking beyond Pope for 2-0.

The Whites were cooking in the September sun, and it almost got better when Raúl met Saša Lukić’s inswinging cross on the half volley. He caught it well but it was always rising and missed the target.

We hadn’t seen anything of the Magpies in an attacking sense since their disallowed goal, but Barnes made sure Bernd Leno was alert on 33 minutes, drawing a low stop from the Fulham number one.

But it was immediately our turn again to attack, with Pope using his feet well to turn Adama’s vicious strike from a tight angle around the post.

Andersen had another header blocked from that corner, but he almost brought about a third goal in sensational style a couple of minutes later, with Pope at full stretch to palm away his 35-yard curler.

Newcastle hadn’t been at the races in the first half, but flew out of the traps after the restart, with Barnes coolly placing a shot across Leno and inside the far post inside 30 seconds.

Iwobi – who had been brilliant in the first half – would definitely have thought he’d scored when he smashed a volley from Adama’s hanging cross, but Pope showed incredible reflexes to divert it behind with his knee.

Raúl attempted a spectacular bicycle kick from the corner, and a deflection on its way through required another Pope intervention.

The boys had responded well to United’s goal, and Smith Rowe will have been disappointed to slice his effort just before the hour mark when an Andreas Pereira free-kick was cleared to him on the edge of the box.

The atmosphere was getting tenser in SW6, and Newcastle threatened thrice in quick succession with 20 minutes to play – Leno denying Anthony Gordon at the end of a quick break, Jacob Murphy’s shot licking the top of the net, and Fabian Schar lashing into the side-netting after picking Smith Rowe’s pocket.

A third goal for Fulham felt crucial and Kenny Tete threatened it with a barnstorming run down the right, only to pull his effort short of the near post.

Iwobi then sent a volley over after being picked out by Nelson, but it was a difficult strike to take on.

Having conceded in the fifth minute of stoppage time a week ago, you can imagine the stress levels when six were put up by the fourth official, but Nelson erased any worries, rifling home emphatically after Magpies captain Bruno Guimaraes needlessly picked him out in the box.

A first Rodrigo Muniz goal of the season would have put the icing on the cake, but he drilled over first time from 19 yards following a pick out from fellow substitute Harrison Reed, meaning Fulham had to settle for just the three goals to go with our three points.