Newcastle United fans far from happy after defeat to Fulham .
A poor result and arguably an even worse performance at Craven Cottage.
These were some of the comments from Newcastle United fans after this particular defeat in West London, the instant match reaction from some of our regular contributors on The Mag.
GToon:
'So our results finally caught up with our performances. That was pretty poor from some of our more experienced players. And that lot down the road won too. I've had better days.'
Jamie Smith:
'Well this has been coming. The first half was unacceptable. We seem to be stuck in a situation where everyone wants three touches and ten seconds on the ball and this ponderous approach gets punished time and time again.'
Tony Mallabar:
'Well I did say last week that we got out of jail…and as sure as night turns into day, up pops the shambolic performance our season has promised all season. Fulham should have had the game out of sight well before ht. Howe has taken us as far as he can.'
Nat Seaton
'A poor away performance full of mistakes and not many positives to take forward…We look vulnerable at the back and two mistakes resulted in two goals but there were others.'
Billy Miller:
'If we kept playing as we had been, a result like this was always coming. I was pretty happy with the starting line-up but that first half was abysmal.'
Matt Busby said to Joe Harvey:
'Well, the unbeaten run comes to a shuddering halt and our performance wasn't any more convincing. In some respects, it was far, far worse. The optimist in me thinks, cancel out those huge mistakes…But that's clutching at straws big style. Yet again, we fall behind. This time we go two down and it proves insurmountable. Yet again, there were too many substandard performances. This time, we got what we deserved.'
Conclusions?
As you can see, some very damning comments from Newcastle United fans after such a poor performance and result at Craven Cottage.
Yes, 21 September 2024 was a shocker…
You see, these comments from Newcastle United fans (who are also regular contributors to The Mag) was the immediate reaction to the 3-1 defeat to Fulham early last season, on Saturday 21 September 2024. The first half performance that day was actually far worse than Sunday just gone. Although the second half was far better back in September 2024, Barnes scoring just after half-time and Fabian Schar failed with a sitter to equalise, then in the very final stages Bruno tried an all or nothing ball out of a very deep position that was intercepted, leading to a 3-1 final scoreline in favour of Fulham.
Interesting to look back and amusing/interesting that the comments above came despite Newcastle United starting the season with four wins and a draw, no defeats. Premier League victories over Southampton, Spurs and Wolves, a draw at Bournemouth , plus the Carabao Cup penalties win at Nottingham Forest .
A lot of the negativity came from early season performances that had been via grinding them out rather than a lot of free flowing football. Sandro Tonali had only a few weeks earlier become available after his ten months ban.
Though the overwhelming portion of the negativity came from a summer where not a single first team contender had been signed and the PSR shambles allowed to develop by the Newcastle United owners, had led to the emergency sales of two of United's best young talents to rival clubs. Anderson and Minteh having to be sold by the end of June 2024 to avoid a PSR points deduction and potential other penalties.
I will leave the last word though to Jamie Smith, this is what he also included in his immediate post-match comments after Fulham 3 Newcastle 1 on Saturday 21 September 2024:
'It's hard now not to think this is the tone for the season. Hopefully form will kick in at some point but this kind of performance seems to be a regular default these days and it feels like transforming this season into some kind of success is the last chance for this incarnation of NUFC, surely various changes and offskis if we have another 8 months like this.'
Eight months later Eddie Howe and his Newcastle United players followed up the trophy win in March 2025 with a second qualification for the Champions League in three seasons.
You never know what is waiting for you around the corner, good and bad.
