St James’ Park awaits – Newcastle v Fulham preview | OneFootball

Welcome to the Newcastle v Fulham preview.

Saturday 1st February – 3pm

Newcastle kick-off a potentially season-defining month with a home game against Fulham, looking to win for the eleventh time in their past twelve matches.

In the process, the Toon will be desperate to draw a line under the last home match, that saw a disastrous heavy defeat to an in-form Bournemouth.

Fulham will be hoping to achieve some consistency after a stop-start season that has seen them struggle to put a run of wins together. They will however take heart from the fact they have already beaten the Toon this season, so have the chance to complete a double over their black and white counterparts.

The Toon have won five of their past six league matches (and eight of their past nine) in a run of form that has seen them steadily climb the league table and challenge for a place in the top four. We’ve beaten Southampton, Wolves, Tottenham, Man Utd and Villa in the last six, plus losing to Bournemouth, scoring fourteen goals and conceding six (although four of those came in the same game), Newcastle United are top of the Premier League form table and will finish this weekend between third and seventh in the league.

Fulham have won two, drawn two and lost two of their past six matches, which is a reflection of their lack of consistency throughout the season. Their wins have both come away from home against Leicester and Chelsea, whilst they’ve had entertaining 2-2 draws with Bournemouth and Ipswich. They’ve suffered losses to Man United and West Ham. Their past six matches have seen them score ten goals and concede nine. They’ll finish this weekend ninth, tenth or eleventh in the league.

Last time out

Newcastle went away to Southampton and recovered from an early setback to win 3-1. Conceding a goal against the run of play after just ten minutes could have spelled disaster for NUFC but a quickfire double for Isak gave us a half-time lead. The start of the second half saw the Toon threatening to run riot when the move of the match involving both Schar and Isak, then led to Gordon threading the ball through to an onrushing Sandro Tonali to bury his first league goal in almost eighteen months and celebrate wildly with the away fans. With the points secured, United continued to threaten and hit the post before having one cleared off the line.

Fulham hosted Man Utd and went down to a 1-0 defeat. A poor game was settled by a late goal and Fulham will be desperately disappointed not to have held out for at least a point.

Newcastle are unbeaten in the past eight home Premier League matches with Fulham, winning five and drawing three.

NUFC have achieved eight victories and five draws in sixteen home Premier League matches with Fulham.

The last five home matches with Fulham in all competitions have seen two wins, two draws and one defeat for the Magpies.

Newcastle have failed to find the net on just three occasions in the last seventeen home matches with Fulham.

Memorable match

In 2008, Kevin Keegan made a sensational return to manage Newcastle United, having left the position eleven years previously. Despite an absolutely euphoric reaction from fans on his return, his first nine matches in charge had seen six defeats, three draws and an exit from the FA Cup.

Fulham came to St James’ Park determined to continue Newcastle’s rot but found themselves behind after just six minutes, when Viduka turned in the box and rifled home at the Leazes End. We’d have to wait until the last few minutes for the points to be secured by a Michael Owen header, as a confident performance was rewarded with a fully deserved three points. Toon would go on to win three of their next four matches to comfortably steer clear of the relegation zone. Final Score: Newcastle 2-0 Fulham

Played for both

Lee Clark came through the ranks at Newcastle and made his NUFC debut in 1990. A passionate Toon fan, it was a huge shock when he signed for the Mackems in 1997 and spent two years helping them reach the Premier League. Memorably, he redeemed this huge error of judgement by turning up at the 1999 FA Cup final wearing a T-Shirt mocking Sunderland supporters and never played for the club again. He signed for Fulham and spent five years there, refusing to celebrate on the occasions he scored against the Toon. He made a return to NUFC in 2005, playing for one season and scoring once – a last minute equaliser in a 2-2 draw with Middlesbrough.

Aleksandar Mitrovic had something of a bizarre spell at NUFC from 2015 to 2018. He managed to get booked twenty two seconds into his debut and was then sent off in his next home match, as his start to life at the Toon threatened to descend into farce. He was able to redeem himself with a few important goals, including a face saving equaliser in a 1-1 draw at home to Sunderland. The last day of his first season saw the best and worst of Mitro, scoring a brilliant goal to put us 2-0 against Spurs but then letting himself down when being sent off for a needless stamp. He did play a bitpart in our promotion campaign of 2016/17 (including both goals in a fine 2-1 win away at Preston) but it was clear that Rafa never really trusted him and he signed (initially on loan) for Fulham in 2018. His twelve goals in seventeen loan games helped fire the cottagers to the Premier League via the play-offs. He’d sign permanently, stay for five years and score over one hundred goals, making him their sixth highest scorer of all time.

Scott Parker signed for Newcastle from Chelsea in 2005 and was made captain a year later when Alan Shearer retired. He holds the honour of being the last NUFC captain to win a trophy when proudly receiving a plaque to commemorate the Toon being the champions of the intertoto Cup (although he hardly looked delighted at the time!). He signed for West Ham in 2007 before moving to Tottenham and then Fulham, where he spent four years as a player and returned later in his career to manage them for two seasons.

Managers

Eddie Howe after a 3-1 away win over Southampton –

“I thought it was a massive win for us after last week. The performance and the result weren’t anywhere near what we have been of late, especially conceding so early, that was a huge response from the players. It would have been a moment that we needed to respond and dig deep, and we did. I thought we played really well in that first half, excellent. Great response to conceding, I thought we looked creative and had a good feel about us”

Marco Silver after a 1-0 defeat at home to Man Utd –

Charity

Newcastle United fans food bank will once again be collecting opposite the Gallowgate end and gratefully receiving food, money and toiletries for those in need. Of particular interest are non-perishable food and drink items (such as noodles, pasta, rice, canned food, soup, cereal, cordial, long life milk etc) as well as toiletries such as shower gel, shampoo, toothpaste and sanitary products. Please give whatever you can, any donation is very much appreciated.