Newcastle sink 10-man Fulham after Lewis Miley’s first senior goal

Who knows what might have happened if Fulham’s Raúl Jiménez had not been sent off midway through the first half but Newcastle ultimately made the most of their numerical advantage.

Well before the end the psychological damage sustained by Eddie Howe’s team during a trio of consecutive defeats looked, if not quite fully repaired, decently patched up.

Newcastle’s injury jinx claimed yet another casualty in the 14th minute when Fabian Schär suddenly pulled up while running with the ball and descended to the turf. The Switzerland centre-half soon hobbled off and although Sven Botman was on the bench after finally recovering from the knee injury which has sidelined him since September he was evidently not ready to play the majority of match so Emil Krafth trotted on to take up the right back role as Howe re-arranged his back four.

Marco Silva soon found himself making a rather more significant, thoroughly unwanted, re-shuffle from 4-2-3-1 to 4-4-1 after Jiménez launched into a high, wild, studs up, kung fu style, challenge on Sean Longstaff which concluded with Fulham’s key striker catching the midfielder in the head with a hip.

It seemed Jiménez had lost all semblance of control, let alone poise, in the wake of being caught by a stray, almost certainly accidental, elbow belonging to Jamaal Lascelles and was hellbent on exerting revenge on anyone wearing black and white stripes.

Although the referee, Sam Barrott, initially issued a yellow card – perhaps on the basis that the Mexican did appear to be attempting to pull out at the last moment and had made sure he was no longer leading with his foot – a VAR review prompted him to change his mind about an incident that could easily have caused a serious injury.

With a red card clearly merited it proved a case of VAR, for once, working perfectly. Yet although Anthony Gordon swiftly saw a shot rebound off the bar, a Newcastle team which had lost three successive games against Everton, Tottenham and Milan, continued to creak.

Sure enough Howe’s treatment room gained another patient when Joelinton limped off clutching a hamstring to be replaced by Lewis Miley. By now Fulham had regrouped and, defying their hosts’ numerical advantage, started giving Newcastle a few real counterattacking frights.

Silva’s side last won away in the Premier League on the season’s opening weekend but they had scored 10 goals in their past two games, dictating that even Jiménez’s dismissal could not quite remove the swagger from their often impressively inventive step.

If Alex Iwobi, now Silva’s emergency lone striker, had been wearing his shooting boots they might even have taken a first-half lead but, despite blowing that highly inviting chance Iwobi at least succeeded in holding the ball up impressively and playing a big part in keeping his side in the game.

Ditto Bernd Leno. Fulham’s goalkeeper was increasingly involved as Newcastle attacked with second-half menace. One save, made one handed from Gordon was particularly good but even Leno had no answer to Miley when the 17-year-old seized a loose ball and lashed it low, right footed and unerringly into the far bottom corner after Bruno Guimarães had unhinged Silva’s defence.

The Brazilian had performed wonders to beat a trio of tight markers before seeing his attempt at an ensuing shot to ricochet kindly for Miley to score his first senior goal.

Miguel Almirón soon double Newcastle’s advantage, pouncing on another loose ball to shoot into an empty net after Antonee Robinson had sent Callum Wilson crashing in the area. Following a short hiatus while VAR checked for a possible offside against Wilson, a goal created by Gordon’s initial through pass stood.

Dan Burn added a third when, despite Leno managing to block his initial header on the line, he made no mistake with the rebound as Newcastle rose to sixth place.

As Howe hugged Miley after the final whistle the smile spreading across the teenager’s face was one of pure joy.