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- Newcastle’s solid start to the campaign comes to a screeching halt
LONDON: Fulham’s Raul Jimenez, Emile Smith Rowe, and Reiss Nelson all scored in a 3-1 victory over Newcastle United at Craven Cottage on Saturday, giving Eddie Howe’s team their first defeat of the Premier League season.
Newcastle, whose solid start to the campaign came to a screeching halt, are sixth in the table with 10 points after five games, while Marco Silva’s Fulham are eighth with eight points after their second victory this season.
“Sticking together and staying patient at times, we know Newcastle are a really strong team, so we had to sit and be patient, get the ball, and score,” Smith Rowe said.
“Happy we took our chances, first few games we struggled to take our chances, so we’re happy with our three goals. It starts off the pitch, it’s like a family in there and we know we want to do everything for each other and want to work and want to win.”
Newcastle briefly celebrated what they thought was an early lead in the fifth minute through Joelinton, but his goal was ruled offside. Fulham capitalized on the visitors’ error just 44 seconds later when Adama Traore found Jimenez inside the box and the Mexican fired home.
Smith Rowe extended Fulham’s lead in the 22nd minute when Alex Iwobi threaded a pass to the former Arsenal midfielder, whose shot hit the hand of keeper Nick Pope before trickling over the line.
Smith Rowe has been in fine form at Fulham after several injury-plagued seasons.
“I’m confident at the moment and comfortable with everything. I’ve got to keep going and keep working hard,” he said.
“Everyone knows it has been a tough couple of seasons for me. I have to stay fit, and I feel good at the moment.”
The Magpies kicked off the second half with far more urgency, and shortly after the restart, Harvey Barnes latched on to a through ball from Jacob Murphy and finished with a low shot to the far corner.
Howe’s men squandered a bagful of chances at equalizers, with Anthony Gordon, Jacob Murphy, and Fabian Schar all going close.
Schar missed an absolute sitter when he intercepted a short pass from Fulham keeper Bernd Leno to an unsuspecting Smith Rowe but fired his short-range shot wide of the net.
“It wasn’t clicking for us,” Barnes said on Newcastle’s poor first half.
“On the ball, we weren’t good enough, and off the ball, you can see from their goals that we weren’t at our level.”
“We needed a reaction (after the break). We got one — to a degree, anyway, because we didn’t get the result — but there were more promising signs in the second half.”
Nelson, a late-game substitute, put the match to bed in injury time with his first league goal, pouncing on Newcastle’s defensive blunder to fire home from close range.