3 Positives and 3 Negatives to take from Fulham 1 Newcastle 1

Saturday’s match ended Fulham 1 Newcastle 1.

Ahead of each game we ask one of our writers to come up with three positives and three negatives following the game.

Plenty to talk about after this Fulham one…

A match that saw Newcastle United take the lead with a stunning long range Jacob Murphy left foot stunner.

Only for Fulham to deny United all three points only a couple of minutes after the restart.

On this occasion it is ‘Matt Busby said to Joe Harvey…’ with the positives and negatives:

POSITIVES

Hornicek MOTM?

I criticised Hornicek on Monday; it was deserved, after he let the ball squirm under him to gift Thierno Barry his goal.

Five days later at Craven Cottage, the young Czech is probably our MOTM, a string of decent saves from Oscar Bobb, Josh King, Timothy Castagne, before the pick of the lot, diving full stretch to deny Ryan Sessegnon in injury time and preserve United’s point.

Unbeaten in the capital

Although it was very frustrating to concede less than three minutes after Jacob Murphy had put us ahead, we could have still conspired to lose this one, so a point is a point and after Monday’s debacle, we needed to limit our losses.

That’s four games in London this season; three wins and a draw with only one goal conceded.

Murphy MOTM?

That was a peach of a strike from Jacob Murphy in the 80th minute and it should have delivered us all three points.

Not only did he score that cracker, I thought Murphy was our best outfield player today, responsible for creating two big chances for Barnes and Burn, whose disallowed goal should have stood in my opinion.

Murphy also did some decent defensive work, tracking back in support of Dedic, so it’s a toss up between him and the keeper for my MOTM award.

NEGATIVES

Our lead didn’t even last three minutes

Not only did our lead take less than three minutes to dismantle, it was the manner in which it was lost that was so annoying.

Unnecessary panicking, unable to clear our lines and an awful deflection all conspiring against us. We still look very brittle at the back.

Gonzalez and Steur together?

I thought pairing these two in the centre of the park was a no-brainer and long overdue.

In some respects, I was a little surprised to see Matthias Jaissle agreeing with me today, but when the team was announced, the German had seemingly taken heed.

Unfortunately, neither was able to stamp their authority on the game and the so-called double pivot didn’t work out; Fulham dominated possession and our transition from defence into attack was very sluggish.

It wasn’t a surprise that both were replaced but I don’t think Jaissle should give up on this pairing based solely on today.

Jaissle on the brink?

He may well be, although he wasn’t at fault for their equaliser, just like he can’t be blamed for what looks like such poor recruitment over the past couple of windows.

What concerns me about this manager is that he doesn’t seem capable of getting a tune out of his players and where is Aladji Bamba?

Fulham 1 Newcastle United 1 – Saturday 7 November 2026 3pm

Match Stats

Goals:

Newcastle United:

80 Murphy

Fulham:

83 Muniz

Possession was Newcastle 42% Fulham 58%

Total shots were Newcastle 9 Fulham 11

Shots on target were Newcastle 5 Fulham 5

Corners were Newcastle 3 Fulham 3

Touches in the opposition box Newcastle 19 Fulham 27

Newcastle United team v Fulham:

Hornicek, Dedic, Thiaw (Schar 85), Burn, Hall, Gonzalez (Miley 61), Steur (Fernanez-Pardo 74), Barnes, Wissa (Willock 61), Murphy, Osula (Elanga 85)

Unused subs:

Pope, Livramento, Botman, Toure