Newcastle United 0, Fulham 1

May 18 2009 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

THERE are times when it seems as though football only ever brings you up so that it can kick you crashing back down to Earth again.

Having pumped their supporters veins with renewed hope and optimism in an adrenaline rush of a night against Middlesbrough, Newcastle United took a knife and sliced themselves open against Fulham as the life drained out of their survival bid.

Football is called the beautiful game, but that beauty hides cruelty, pain and anguish. Football can be alluringly attractive, but so much at Newcastle this season has been ugly, on and off the pitch.

Where so much had gone right against Boro, so much went wrong against the Cottagers. Newcastle’s performance was poor, lacking sparkle and imagination in a game which needed both.

The tempo was pedestrian, the effort and desire apparently lacking from a group of players who have so often failed to justify the hype which surrounds them in a football daft city.

In the stands, where St James’s Park had been transformed into a cauldron of noise on Monday night, fuelling the team on the pitch, the only thing boiling at the end of 90 minutes were tempers.

Newcastle thought they were safe after their first win in 11 games. Arrogance, complacency or stupidity? A poisonous mixture of both.

Newcastle had failed to beat any team above them in the table since December, yet they dared to think Fulham would yield.

The dark, stormy clouds which circled over St James’s Park in the dying stages of Saturday’s defeat symbolised destruction, the rain that fell from them the tears of a support demoralised by what they had just seen.

The Middlesbrough win felt like the start of something special, it felt as though it could be the turning point and a launch pad towards safety. Fulham shattered that illusion like some many others have done before them.

Diomansy Kamara’s goal was a classic piece of counter-attacking football. Erik Nevland sprung the offside trap as Steven Taylor was caught fractionally behind the rest of the back four.

Exposed, Steve Harper could do nothing more than spread himself, but Nevland had support, rolling the ball across to Kamara hit home.

Before that, Obafemi Martins saw a shot clip the outside of the post as he ran on to Kevin Nolan’s through ball, but Newcastle were embarrassingly one-dimensional in much of their first-half action.

With Alan Shearer’s less than kind words ringing in their ears after the break, Newcastle rediscovered their urgency in the second-half but the result was arguably settled after just 49 minutes.

When Dickson Etuhu hooked the ball off the line after Mark Schwarzer had failed to deal with Danny Guthrie’s dipping free-kick into the area, Fulham had already enjoyed one escape. But from the resulting corner, Guthrie picked out Mark Viduka at the near post who planted a firm header into the back of the net. St James’s Park erupted and then subsided, crushed mentally and emotionally.

With Nolan standing close to Schwarzer, the Australian goalkeeper saw referee Howard Webb was watching, took a step into the United midfielder – who does not have to move out of the way – and appealed for the free-kick as Viduka celebrated. Webb fell for the ploy.

It is on moments such as these that destiny can rest.

Had United scored then, so quickly after the break, the momentum would have swung in their favour. Instead, they were asked to come again.

Minutes later and they were trying to find an equaliser with 10 men, Sebastien Bassong’s habit of grabbing hold of players when caught out of position finally costing him when he pulled back Kamara and Webb showed red. Still Newcastle might have grabbed something from the game on willpower alone, Martins denied by a decent stop from Schwarzer after wriggling away from former Newcastle defender Aaron Hughes thanks to a brilliant long kick by Harper.

Fulham had chances to make it two, Clint Dempsey somehow lifting the ball over from six yards, but there was still time for one final cruel twist.

Deep into stoppage time, the ball was pumped once more into the area. Andy Carroll rose perfectly to meet it and Nicky Butt, on his old legs, found the energy to sprint into the area to meet the knockdown. He caught it well, only for Schwarzer to make an excellent one-handed save.

After Hull’s draw at Bolton, Newcastle will go to Aston Villa next weekend more in hope than expectation. They are still alive, but the pulse is faint and the end is near. Shearer has one more chance to perform life-saving surgery.