Welcome to the Newcastle – Fulham preview.
Wednesday, December 17, starting at 8:15 p.m.
Newcastle United have the chance to reach their third League Cup semi-final in just four seasons on Wednesday evening when they welcome Fulham to St James’ Park.
As defending champions, the responsibility lies with Toon to continue our brilliant form in this competition.
Fulham have already been put to the sword at St James’ this season when an injury-time strike from Bruno sealed a 2-1 win after an early Murphy goal was canceled out.
This match will be broadcast live on both ITV and Sky Sports. If the scores are equal at full-time, it goes straight to a penalty shootout.
Hopefully the Toon will be included in the draw for the semi-finals which will take place after our match has ended.
Form
The Toon have beaten Bradford City and Tottenham Hotspur (both at home) to reach this stage. Bradford were comfortably dismissed 4-1 with braces from Joelinton and Osula, while Spurs were dismissed in a 2-0 win thanks to headed goals from Schar and Woltemade.
Fulham have so far beaten Bristol City, Cambridge United and Liverpool to reach the quarter-finals. They are yet to admit beating Bristol City 2-0 and Cambridge United 1-0 before the highlight of their campaign was a 3-0 win against Liverpool.
Last time out
Let’s not dwell on this: Newcastle suffered a truly terrible 1-0 defeat to arch-rivals Sunderland. A horrific football match was settled with a somewhat bizarre own goal when Woltemade buried a header past Ramsdale to gift the Mackems three points. It never looked like we would score in one of our worst ever derby games in the Premier League.
Fulham headed to Burnley on Saturday and came away with a very credible 3-2 win. They took an early lead, but were quickly regained. Despite this, they scored two more to make it 3–1 before Burnley scored a late consolation. This was a nice win for Fulham and helped allay some of their relegation fears after a difficult start to the season.
State attack!
-The Toon have only won three League Cup quarter-finals in their history, but two of those have come in the last three seasons.
-NUFC has already been drawn at home four times in a quarter-final of the League Cup and has won three.
-Newcastle have won seven of the last ten meetings with Fulham in all competitions.
Memorable match
Newcastle hosted Fulham in January 2004, knowing that a win would keep alive their hopes of a top-four finish. The match was only five minutes old when Andy O’Brien crossed the penalty area at the Leazes End to put United ahead and things were to get even better when Gary Speed buried a header from a Solano corner to double our lead before half-time. The points were won early in the second half by an ignominious Robert goal that isn’t talked about nearly enough. If Cantona, Zola or Bergkamp had done what Robert did, it would, rightly, have gone down in history as one of the Premier League’s greatest goals of all time. Solano shot the ball into the danger zone and our Frenchman jumped at it, spun in the air and scored with his back heel from a reverse bicycle kick. I’ve never seen anything like it, nor before. Three goals for the good side, Newcastle sat back and conceded a late consolation, but this was a well-deserved win and a great start to the year. Newcastle 3-1 Fulham.
Played for both
Alain Goma signed for Ruud Gullit in 1999, but was soon managed by Sir Bobby. He spent two years at Newcastle without many highlights. His only goal was an impressive header in a 3-1 win away at Middlesbrough. He signed for Fulham in 2001 and spent five years with the cottagers, helping them gain promotion to the Premier League.
Danny Guthrie signed for the Toon in 2008 and spent four years on Tyneside, weathering the lows of relegation in 2009 to the heights of a top five Premier League finish in 2012. He was an integral part of our promotion in 2010, scoring five goals and providing thirteen assists as we won the Championship. He played on loan for Fulham in 2015, but failed to find the net in six league matches.
Aleksandar Mitrovic joined NUFC in 2015 and managed to get booked just seconds after his debut. Despite a rather terrible disciplinary record, he managed to become something of a cult hero and score important goals. Including a volley in a 6-2 win at home to Norwich, an equalizer at home to the Mackems and a bullet header in a match with Tottenham, when he became only the sixth player in Premier League history to score, assist and be sent off in the same match. He spent three years with the Toon before signing for Fulham, where he scored ninety-seven league goals in a five-year spell.
Managers
Eddie Howe after a 1-0 defeat away to the Mackems:
“That will sting for a long time. We know that our performance was not what we needed. Not defensively, we defended well. It was a game with few chances. Unfortunately that one big moment turned against us, it was a bizarre moment, but we were not good enough to open them up. I am disappointed for the supporters and I feel sorry for our performance, because of the lack of goals and clinical attacks. It was certainly not a lack of effort. But in the first sixty minutes I don’t think we were a threat. It was not at all the best day for our front players. The openings were there, with a better decision or pass. The quality was not there at that stage of the game. The changes had a positive impact, but we could not control the goalkeeper enough.’
Marco Silva after a 3-2 win away at Burnley:
“It’s a tough place to get to. It doesn’t matter if they’re doing badly. We know when you’re doing badly, how much you want to change it. We were smart, the way we started the game. The reaction from them was what we expected. Lots of chances for both teams – a lot more than I like to see. Some mistakes. That’s how football is sometimes. In the first half we scored goals at important moments. We gave them a lot of chances when they didn’t need to. The three points were deserved from ourselves.”
Good cause
The Newcastle United Fan Food Bank will once again be raising money across the Gallowgate, gratefully receiving food, cash and toiletries for those in need. Of particular importance are non-perishable food and drink items (such as noodles, pasta, rice, canned food, soup, cereal, liquor, long-life milk, etc.) as well as toiletries such as shower gel, shampoo, toothpaste and sanitary products. Please give what you can, any donation is greatly appreciated.
For more information and/or to donate online, visit Newcastle Food Bank
Prediction
This is an absolutely golden opportunity to reach another League Cup semi-final. Newcastle will be the big favorites for this, especially with the home advantage. The performance and result over the weekend were both terrible, but there is no time for a hangover as we look to defend the title we won in such spectacular fashion in March. I think this will be a much tighter match than most fans expect, but we will make it to the semi-finals – fairly. Newcastle 1-1 Fulham (Toon wins on penalties).
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