Late Miley header dumps Fulham out of cup

Newcastle win 2-1 to end our cup run in the quarter-finals.

If there is to be a trophy for Marco Silva’s tenure at Fulham, it won’t be coming in the League Cup this year. Newcastle United, defending champions, have eliminated us from the competition with a 2-1 win tonight, a late Miley header from a corner taking the game away from us at the death. There’s always frustration to be had at results like this, particularly when the promise of silverware is snatched away in the dying moments, but today’s result showcases the difference between a Champions League side and a mid-table one dealing with AFCON-enforced absences, and removed from the emotion of another cup exit we’ve been bested by a far superior side.

First Half

Silva picked a strong team to start the quarter-final, and the early readings of the game were good. The interplay of the front four was slick, taking Fulham nicely up the pitch. Supported by Berge and Lukic, playing with a boost to their game, and revitalised by the return of Antonee Robinson, Fulham had the better of the opening moments, passing the ball into Newcastle’s final third. Jimenez dropped deep to link play, Smith Rowe showed industriousness and Kevin took the game to makeshift right-back Miley to put Fulham on the terrain of the game.

To no one’s surprise then, Newcastle took the lead through Wissa ten minutes in. Schar whipped a fantastic diagonal pass from his own half to Murphy on the wings. With space away from Robinson, he drilled a low cross in to the box; Lecomte’s weak palm away from goal fell straight to Wissa, on point to tap the ball into the goal. Not for the first time flimsy defending gifted an opponent the lead - Robinson needed to be tighter, Andersen could have taken initiative to stop the cross, and as a keeper Lecomte can’t be putting the ball directly back into the danger zone.

A poor start, which might have compounded with some shaky play straight after the goal, but we rectified it quickly. Getting back on the ball, Andersen aped Schar with a crossfield ball of his own, arching the ball to the left. Robinson sprinted past Murphy and collected it superbly, putting himself in prime position to cross it - he did just that, and his brilliant delivery flew to the path of Lukic, charging into the box ahead of the midfield, whose header sailed beyond the sprawling dive of Ramsdale. In previous years we’d have sunk into the mire following an early setback, especially at St James Park - what a refreshing change to maintain some momentum from before the concession.

Newcastle weren’t interested in letting their mood dip either. Their defence were keen to step forward and pin us back, Livramento and Schar driving the team forward by moving out of the backline and playing passes into dangerous positions. Murphy had his eye on the space Robinson left on our left, and together with Wissa and Barnes loomed ominously around Fulham territory. With Bruno Guimaraes linking it all together, many a spell was had nervously watching Fulham react to Newcastle’s offensives.

We weren’t terrible here, in fairness, and there were good efforts from Cuenca, putting his defensive acumen to the test, Berge, well-placed to intercept and redistribute possession, and Lukic, tough and gritty in his presses across the half. Equally though, a sharper Newcastle might have punished us. Willock lifted a pass over our backline that a better-timed header from Wissa would have required Lecomte to save, a Barnes dispossession in midfield let him sprint at goal and feed Bruno - the Brazilian smacked his shot over - and a weirdly bendy long-distance effort from the same man produced an awkward parry sideways from Lecomte, producing a close-call between Andersen and Wissa from Murphy’s resulting cross and Livramento bending a shot just over the bar.

Fulham couldn’t match this constant pressure - whilst we looked good across our football, the athletic talents Newcastle boast didn’t translate, leading to fewer clear chances. Our best of the half came when Kevin, supplied by Smith Rowe combined nicely with Wilson but put his shot straight into Ramsdale along the floor. However, the promise of many nearly-moments was far greater - Newcastle’s physicality let them shut down our opportunities, perhaps best encapsulated by Jimenez trying to burst into Newcastle territory and being caught up and barged off the ball by Ramsey. Specifically, we could turn this criticism to Kevin - whilst his teammates had the eye for each other, the Brazilian failed to read attacking situations properly, pumping a shot into the stands with Lukic surging into the box again, and miskicking a through ball that could have put Wilson ahead of the backline. In a game of tight margins such wastefulness would prove costly.

Second Half

Our goalscorer, and one of our better players of the game, departed over half-time - be it for injury or to avoid picking up a second yellow card (following a harsh first), Lukic was swapped for Reed. It started well, actually, and he continued the work Lukic did to put Fulham around Newcastle territory with purpose. Again, Fulham’s possession play had the airs of danger, and were but a few decent moves away from striking at goal.

However, Newcastle are a team trained for a higher standard than Fulham have reached. Challenges for the top 4, cup runs deep into the tournament and adventures across Europe have put many miles into their players’ legs, and the recruitment, investment and coaching at the club has cultivated a forceful side. They kept at us, wrestling away the danger from their final third, pushing play back to the midfield, generating more chances as time progressed. Reed is good, but he has neither Lukic’s quality on the ball or height, and the dynamic edge Fulham proffered in the first half dissipated.

We were struggling long before their substitutes started arriving, too. Livramento, in our final third, played Barnes ahead of him on our right - away from Tete, the winger drilled a shot at Lecomte, whose timid save needed clearing by Andersen. With Jimenez exhausted from his first-half exertions, Newcastle halted much of the creative play that had set his teammates onto attacking paths. It let the defence have an easier time recycling play; one such moment saw Schar find Bruno, who turned and fed Murphy away from Robinson, leading to a cross deflecting off Andersen and finding the net. Offside alone denied Newcastle the lead.

Smith Rowe, taker of one of the few chances we had managed - a shot after a half-turn assisted by Cuenca that Ramsdale caught well - found himself taken off, along with the disappointing Kevin, for King and Adama Traore. Moments earlier, Newcastle had removed a poor Willock and a tiring Wissa for international players Sandro Tonali and Nick Woltemade. It is a little harsh on King, who is still a fledgling in the wider context of the game, but watching him trying to outmatch brutish defenders like Thiaw and Schar in the air was painful, and the move seemed to confirm to Newcastle that Fulham were trying to scrape their way to penalties. They consolidated possession even further and started intensifying their play to an even sterner degree.

Again, there was serious resilience from the Fulham defence. I don’t think it’s unfair to suggest Newcastle had an easy time attacking - Robinson and Tete had their hands full on the wings, but Cuenca settled into the defence nicely, Berge stepped back to help out effectively, and even Lecomte grew from his first half flaps, growing in confidence as the game progressed. But the situation was too much for Fulham to handle, compounded by more internationals in the pacey pair of Gordon and Elanga entering the game. A top-heavy match we were just about keeping Newcastle from striking at goal in tipped over as we entered stoppage time.

Bruno, able to enter the final third with more ease, worked himself into the corner of the box. He smacked two shots at Lecomte’s near post that were blocked by Berge, followed by a goalmouth scramble that saw Woltemade lay the ball off for Miley to strike at goal - a fine save from the keeper pushed the ball away from the bottom corner of the net. But it drew a corner, it let Newcastle’s troops swarm the box, and with Tonali’s diamond-quality passing now available, the delivery was exquisite, curling into just the right area for Miley to leap onto, lifting the ball into the far corner of the goal. We might criticise Lecomte’s positioning, or indeed the wider team for their second-successive failure to stop a late corner from being scored, but it was a finely worked strike for the hosts, the reward for a dominant second half, and after cruising through a tepid final few minutes booked their spot in the semi finals.

Newcastle on top

I do think it’s worth focusing on the hosts first. Our natural tendency is to ruminate over the failings of Fulham, who were distinctly second-best for much of the game, but there’s a reason Eddie Howe’s side are able to push themselves through games like this. Whilst their form has been inconsistent over the season, there is enough quality in the team to keep them a threat in any game, something obvious when you can introduce players like Tonali to swing a game your way! It won’t hurt the squad to have a home-grown player like Miley contributing with goals - from an unfamiliar position no less - in the long run either.

Really though the team can stomach a few underperformers over a match. Even though the team was a little underwhelming at times, with Willock and Ramsey a little disjointed in midfield and the forwards struggling to find the clinical touch in the box, there was enough done around the field to best us over the course of the game. Injuries seem the real concern - Livramento, who caused us serious problems moving into attacking areas from left-back, and he’ll be a miss for the team. Regardless, the squad has the depth to cause opponents problems across the game, be it Wissa’s pace, Bruno’s control, Thiaw’s rigorousness or even the simple advantage of being able to introduce strong internationals from major European nations, and whilst they’ve wobbled domestically at times there’s a lot to be pleased about for Newcastle going forward.

Fulham - not a European Team

Onto Fulham then. We could leave it at “we’re not as good as Newcastle” and be done, in truth. Silva certainly seems to feel this, and has been pointed in his criticisms of our transfer dealings and player recruitment. I would argue that Newcastle are clearly several steps ahead of us in the Premier League ecosystem, and are far better suited to cup games like this in the middle of December - without a full-strength squad, we’d need a very good performance to overcome a team with the quality of Howe’s.

Lecomte was disappointing; he grew into the game, but it was from a place of insecurity, and he was fortunate his defenders were sharper than he was at a number of nervy moments. Andersen wasn’t great either, and was outperformed by Cuenca, who will at least have secured his role in the starting berth with Bassey away. Robinson, whilst hitting serious speeds and earning himself an assist, had his number read by Murphy early on, and couldn’t quite get a handle on the danger our left was facing - he is implicated in play that led to both the goals we conceded. Tete was competitive against Barnes and can once again be proud of his efforts tonight.

There’s encouraging signs for Lukic - Iwobi’s absence didn’t feel quite as devastating because the Serbian stepped up, positionally and mentally, to keep the team flowing. Let’s hope his withdrawal at half time isn’t serious - Reed has been a loyal servant for the club, and tried his best, but he can’t keep the quality of play to the same standard, and Newcastle capitalised on it. Berge demonstrated his importance throughout, and continues to grow in the heart of the team.

Smith Rowe has risen to the challenge of King and seems eager to continue his run of games in the side, something that is only healthy for the squad given the fixture congestion. His talents will be needed - with Chukwueze and Iwobi gone, and Muniz still injured, he stands out amongst a sea of underperformance, with perhaps only Wilson topping him for contributions at the moment. Jimenez, talented as he is, was a spectre, traipsing around with half the game to go, and urgently needs a rest. Kevin has so much promise, and at a glance feels the heir apparent to any one of the household Brazilian names of football, but continually flatters to deceive.

It leaves us out, once again, and a quarter-final, however disappointing the exit, feels an expected result for a club like Fulham at this moment in time. Whilst we need to be critical of the team, there’s an element of realism we need here - the cold facts of the situation are that we are fairly close to fielding an entire XI of players injured, fatigued or unavailable, and the teams competing for silverware have two XIs at any one time. The test for Silva will be removing this disappointment from the front of our minds, recalibrating the focus of the squad to our rumblings in the Premier League and ensuring his frustrations about life at Craven Cottage are sidelined by the positive philosophy we’ve all enjoyed for years under his guidance. Certainly, he’ll need to do all three if we’re to beat a resurgent Nottingham Forest this weekend.