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

Welcome to the Newcastle v Fulham preview.

Saturday 25th October – A 3pm kick-off.

Newcastle host Fulham this weekend, looking to secure their third Premier League win of the season.

The Toon will be buoyed by another tremendous European triumph midweek, whilst Fulham will be hoping to utilise the extra few days rest to leapfrog United in the league table by bagging their second successive win at St James’ Park and their third consecutive win over NUFC.

With the two clubs struggling for league form, this is a crucial match that both teams will be desperate to take three points from.

Form

In the past six league matches, Newcastle have won two, lost two and drawn two. which is a reflection of the lack of consistency that has cost us dear so far this season. Wins have come at home against Wolves and Nottingham Forest, whilst we’ve endured boring scoreless draws on the road against Leeds and Bournemouth. Frustrating late defeats against Arsenal and Brighton left Toon fans scratching their heads, as on both occasions Woltemade looked to have secured at least a point before we were hit with the sucker punch. We’ve scored five goals in these matches and conceded four. The eight points gained has us sitting in fourteenth place with a win potentially seeing us sneak into the top half on goal difference. depending on results elsewhere.

Fulham have won two and lost four of their last six matches but three of those defeats have come in their last three matches. They’ve beaten Brentford and Leeds but lost to Arsenal, Bournemouth, Aston Villa and Chelsea. They’ve scored five goals in these matches but conceded ten and the six points gained has them in fifteenth place, just a point behind United with ambitions of finishing the weekend in twelfth depending on other results.

Last time out

The Toon hosted Portuguese giants Benfica on Tuesday night and blew their opponents away with an attacking display that sent St James’ Park into raptures. Newcastle were already knocking on the door before an incisive pass from Bruno saw Jacob Murphy get the ball into the danger zone and whip it across goal for Gordon to finish off a flowing move and put United a goal to the good at half-time. Things were to get even better in the second half with relentless pressure from NUFC leading to two more goals. Firstly, Nick Pope launched an unbelievable sixty-five yard throw into the path of Harvey Barnes to double our advantage and then a Woltemade flick set Gordon on his way to tee up Barnes for his second and United’s third. Further chances were to come and go with Joelinton and Dan Burn forcing incredible saves as we threatened to run riot, on what was a superb occasion for the black and whites.

Fulham welcomed Arsenal to Craven Cottage last weekend and felt themselves unlucky not to take an early lead after a bright start. They were made to rue missed chances when a second-half goal for the gunners condemned them to a 1-0 defeat.

The last ten matches between the two sides at St James’ have seen five NUFC wins, three draws and two defeats.

Newcastle have hosted Fulham on seventeen Premier League occasions, winning eight of them.

The Toon have found the net in eight of the last nine home matches with Fulham in all competitions.

Memorable match

At the start of the 2013/14 season, Alan Pardew’s side were in disarray. Wantaway talisman Yohan Cabaye was dropped against both Man City and West Ham and Newcastle responded with lacklustre performances in a 4-0 defeat and a 0-0 draw. The third game of the season saw the Toon welcome Fulham to St James’ Park. A poor first half saw NUFC pressing without being able to create any clear-cut chances and having to be content with a half-time score of 0-0. The second half was set to continue in a similar vein until Cabaye was brought on to a mixed reception from fans. The Toon immediately looked brighter and went on the offensive, seeing a headed effort from Papiss Cisse beat the ‘keeper but smash back off the crossbar. Despite the added urgency, Newcastle’s barren run looked set to continue as the game remained goalless with just four minutes remaining. At this point, Ben Arfa broke into the area at the Gallowgate End, beat his man and unleashed a rocket into the top corner to send St James’ Park into absolute ecstasy. This was a goal worthy of winning any game and prompted prolonged celebrations both on the pitch and in the stands. With no further scoring, it proved to be the toast of the Toon. Newcastle 1-0 Fulham

Played for both

Philippe Albert is an absolute legend for those of us lucky enough to grow up in the mid-nineties. Signed by Kevin Keegan after a number of impressive performances at the 1994 World Cup, Albert soon proved that there was so much more than just defending to his game. Never afraid to bomb forward, he was often found at the other end of the pitch to good effect, scoring a number of important goals. Although he’s best remembered for his sublime chip to end the scoring in a famous 5-0 victory over Man United, a personal favourite memory of mine is when he galloped forward to volley home an equally special effort in a 3-3 draw against Man City the previous season.

Keegan was so impressed by Albert at Newcastle that he signed him again for Fulham in 1998 and was rewarded with two goals as the cottagers gained promotion from division two.

Louis Saha played on loan at Newcastle under Ruud Gullit in 1999 but managed only a handful of games. His only league strike came in a 4-1 home win against Coventry. He also netted a cracker away at Blackburn in the fifth round of the FA Cup. His winning goal set up a quarter-final tie with Everton as the Toon marched on to the Wembley final.

He signed for Fulham in 2000 and scored over fifty league goals for the club, he was top scorer in the promotion campaign of 00/01 and was named in the PFA team of the year. He spent four years at Craven Cottage before moving on to Man United.

Danny Guthrie signed for the Toon in 2008 and spent four years on Tyneside, enduring the low of relegation in 2009 to the high of a top five Premier League finish in 2012. He was an integral part of our promotion in 2010, netting five goals and providing thirteen assists as we won the championship.

He played for Fulham on loan in 2015 but failed to find the net in six league appearances.

Managers

Eddie Howe after a 3-0 Champions League win over Benfica:

“I’m really pleased because Benfica are a good team. We had to show our qualities today. I thought we were patient initially, because we had chances and didn’t score early, but we kept at it. I think once we scored the second goal, you sort of saw the real us, what we can be. I thought we were excellent from that point onwards. We’re strong, but that’s on paper. We have to prove it on the field. The team won a trophy last year, we have to work hard and demonstrate the full potential I believe the squad possesses.We’re full of good players, we haven’t quite clicked yet, but I believe this is the beginning of what we want to achieve. It wasn’t an easy game. Benfica have huge European experience, with a manager who has done it all. Especially after losing against Brighton on Saturday, the pressure was on us.”

Marco Silva after a 1-0 defeat at home to Arsenal:

“When you lose a game, it is always a disappointing one. They were at a very good level. We did create chances to score before Arsenal. They were more on that than on ourselves. We knew it was not going to be easy, a tough team to play against but I think we kept them away from big chances in the game. After the goal, we did react and started to play more in our way again.”

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.