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Maybe Newcastle were distracted by the prospect of reaching Wembley on Wednesday night or perhaps they have simply hit a bit of a mid-winter wall but, whatever the precise reason, they could not cope with Adama Traoré and his friends from Fulham.
The visiting right winger excelled on the counterattack as goals from Raúl Jiménez and Rodrigo Muniz consigned Eddie Howe’s side to a second successive home defeat. Quite apart from denting their hopes of Champions League qualification it was hardly an ideal dress rehearsal for Newcastle’s midweek Carabao Cup semi-final second leg home date with Arsenal.
Howe’s players kick off that tie with a 2-0 advantage but, if they play as carelessly as this, it might not endure until the final whistle.
Despite a decent start here they could not protect their first-half lead and allowed Marco Silva’s intelligent team a route back into an entertaining, anything but monochrome, game that frequently seemed as vivid as the victors’ bright purple away strip.
Howe had fretted about Jacob Murphy’s potential reaction to Miguel Almirón’s departure for Atlanta last week. Newcastle’s manager feared that, without the direct competition for his place offered by the Paraguayan, Murphy’s game might regress.
Initially at least it seemed Howe had little to fear. If the right winger’s customary industry seemed intact Murphy also offered incision in front of goal as his first-time, 37th minute shot flew beyond Bernd Leno following his connection with Anthony Gordon’s deflected cross.
Although Fulham seemed utterly petrified as Gordon hared down the left flank and Sandro Tonali saw a sumptuous 25-yard volley strike the crossbar, Newcastle were not exactly in control.
No matter that Leno was required to make decent saves to deny Fabian Schär and Tino Livramento, the visiting tactic of alternating between the measured passing that Sander Berge specialises in orchestrating and feeding Jiménez with inviting long balls to accelerate on to created a few awkward moments for Howe’s players.
Despite Tonali remaining one of Newcastle’s better individuals, the Italy midfielder was not being permitted to dictate matters in full-on imperious mode and the supply lines to Alexander Isak often failed to function properly.
Silva’s problem was that his team could not quite conjure that all important final ball; indeed perhaps the only time they really looked like scoring in the first half arrived when Alex Iwobi dodged Livramento down the visiting left and the ensuing cross resulted in Traoré heading narrowly wide.
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Damningly Martin Dubravka, for the moment at least keeping the fit again Nick Pope on the home substitutes’ bench, did not need to make a serious save during that opening 45 minutes but, at the outset of the second period, was required to show off his reflexes to brilliantly keep Emile Smith Rowe’s low shot out.
With even Tonali sometimes ceding possession too cheaply, Newcastle looked a little slapdash in midfield and as Calvin Bassey headed a promising chance off target it seemed Silva’s side could prosper on the counterattack.
The Portuguese’s half-time message had evidently exerted the desired impact as, suddenly, his hitherto shot shy side seemed on a mission to expose Dubravka’s vulnerabilities. The Slovakia goalkeeper was finally beaten by Jiménez’s shot after Tonali lost the ball and Traoré counterattacked at scorching pace before crossing for Antonee Robinson to cue up the Mexican.
Howe’s response to Jiménez’s ninth goal of the season was to replace the struggling Livramento and Joelinton with Kieran Trippier and Joe Willock. Yet athough Isak subsequently directed a curving shot against the woodwork and Howe appealed in vain for a handball penalty against Timothy Castagne, Newcastle still struggled to test Leno.
Silva had more luck with his substitutions. Indeed two of them combined to create the winner when Muniz flicked Andreas Pereira’s free-kick past Dubravka.
