Unsurprisingly, perhaps, it went to that crowd favourite, Steed Malbranque, brought on as a 62nd-minute substitute. Brian McBride picked out Collins John, who had come on as a substitute just a couple of minutes earlier, and the Dutchman shot from close range. Shay Given, Newcastle’s splendidly defiant goalkeeper, kept the shot out with his leg but had the mortification of seeing Malbranque tap the ball into the empty goal. Given, remarkable throughout, followed that up four minutes later with perhaps his most spectacular save of all from a thunderous strike from Heidar Helguson.
Given’s opposite number, Antti Niemi, the Finland international just purchased for an undisclosed fee from Southampton, had little or nothing to do in the first half. Late in the second, however, he made an excellent save from the Newcastle substitute Michael Chopra. When the ball ran loose, Lee Bowyer struck it, but a lunging Fulham centre-back, the veteran Ian Pearce, kept it out. “According to my players, Ian Pearce admitted to them that he handled it,” said Newcastle manager Graeme Souness.
He thought that Newcastle “deserved something out of the game”. Not surprisingly, his opposite number, Chris Coleman, did not agree. “Massive,” he called the significance of this game. “Both teams crippled with injury. It wasn’t going to be easy. I thought the first goal would win it.”
Alan Shearer played for most of the game as a lone striker and never looked likely to score the goal that would have enabled him to go clear of Jackie Milburn as the record scorer for the Magpies. Not that he got much service, least of all from the Spanish international left-flanker, Albert Luque, who was marginal almost to the point of invisibility.
“I like to think of myself as someone who keeps going and I shall keep going,” Souness said. “I believe I’m getting as much as I can from the players I’m working with. I don’t think I’ve done anything terribly wrong. I think we were unlucky today. I think we deserved to get something out of the game.”
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STAR MAN: Shay Given (Newcastle)
Player ratings: Fulham: Niemi 6, Rosenior 6, Knight 6, Pearce 6, N Jensen 6, Radzinski 6 (Malbranque 62min, 7), Boa Morte 7, Legwinski 6 (John 73min, 6), S Elliott 6, Helguson 6, McBride 8
Newcastle United: Given 9, Carr 6 (R Elliott, h-t, 6), Boumsong 6, Ramage 6, Babayaro 5, Solano 6, Bowyer 5, Clark 5, N’Zogbia 6 (Chopra 77min, 6), Shearer 5, Luque 4 (O’Brien 80min, 6)
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Scorer: Fulham: Malbranque 74
Referee: A Wiley
Attendance: 21,974