Fulham boss pleased with reaction to come from behind to secure win at Newcastle
BY MITCHELL HALL
Fulham completed the latest in a series of turnarounds this season as they fought back from behind to win 2-1 away at Newcastle.
The win was the west Londoner’s first Premier League victory at St James’ Park since May of 2009 and also meant they completed the double over the Magpies this season after their 3-1 win in the reverse fixture in September.
Fulham went 1-0 down in the 37th minute when Jacob Murphy, who found himself wide open at the back post, smashed home a low cross in the 37th minute.
Marco Silva’s side came out of the half-time break rejuvenated, and they found their equaliser 16 minutes later as Raul Jimenez’s shot deflected off Murphy and past Martin Dubravka after some fluid Fulham build-up play.
Fulham wrapped up the three points when Rodrigo Muniz darted away from his man to glance Andreas Pereira’s free-kick in at the front post in the 82nd minute, sealing the victory for the visitors.
“What a reaction,” said Silva to BBC Sport. “It’s not easy to do it against Newcastle when they were leading the score at half-time.
“The way we controlled the game, the way we pushed them back, they were not able to press us high. We started to control the game and we had good chances to score, we equalised on a very good counter-attack from us.
“Overall I think we deserved the three points from our reaction.
“It was a disappointing result [against Manchester United] because when you see a team that controls the game and just conceded when [United] shot the first time in the 78th minute. It shows most of the things we did well but didn’t score.
“When you have a down at this level at home the great thing is to react straight away, and we did it in a really tough game against Newcastle away from home.
“It was a long journey for [our fans] to come here and support the team, it’s always nice to come to Newcastle to give them this confidence for them to go home with a smile on their face and they can enjoy the weekend in the best way possible.”
Fulham full-back Antonee Robinson agreed with the assessment regarding the momentum of the game.
“First half, we were under it a little bit,” Robinson said. “You could tell they were confident, but we were still putting stuff together, it just wasn’t quite falling for us in the final third.
“We came in and regrouped second half and we said: ‘Look, just don’t concede any more goals and we’re gonna get chances,’ which we did.
“We came out flying, putting the pressure on them, putting the ball in their half, and managed to get the goal. Then lads coming on and changing the game for us has been a story for us this season.”