The last four and a first step for Newcastle United.
Victory over Fulham felt like a collision of competing realities, an elite team getting on with business in a competition they part-own and a tattered rabble hobbling an inch towards redemption following their miserable defeat to Sunderland. That both things are true explains a lot and explains nothing. It is who they are; a mystery.
Deep in December and a transitional side remain patchwork and piecemeal. In the Premier League, they are 12th, a position which is wholly representative of their performances: not good enough. In the Champions League, they have a decent chance of qualifying for the knockout phase, and in the Carabao Cup, which they won amid such clamour last season, they continue to progress, albeit with concerns and caveats.
In the realm of small mercies, Newcastle put Sunderland behind them, even if a dreadful performance still gurns at them in the rear-view mirror. It was Graeme Souness, one of Eddie Howe’s predecessors, who said of the club (in his autobiography) that “you are only two (defeats) away from a full-on crisis” and, although this is now a less febrile and lurching place than it was in the mid-2000s, some theories you do not wish to test.
Sunderland on Sunday was worse than bad, but reaching a third League Cup semi-final in the space of four seasons offers a competing perspective on what the bigger picture should be for Newcastle, who, let us not forget, have designs on winning everything.
Yoane Wissa celebrates his first Newcastle goal with his team-mates (Michelle Mercer/Newcastle United via Getty Images)
The club’s future glistens, yet the present is made opaque by imperfect recruitment, a loss of identity and confidence, and desperate away form. Injuries are quietly gnawing away at them, too.
“It’s really important we move on,” Howe said afterwards. “Sunday happened and we were devastated with ourselves and really, really sad for our supporters after the performance that we gave. But the beauty of football is that there’s always another game and you have to try to turn that pain into positivity.
“I think we’ve gone some way to doing that. Credit to the players, because the character needed to do well was high. We were under a lot of pressure.”
To return to Wembley they must beat Manchester City over two legs, the first in mid-January at home — where they beat Pep Guardiola’s men last month — which will surely require a significant uptick in levels. Howe described them as “an outstanding team and probably the most difficult game we ever have to prepare for”, but that “hardest task” can be parked for a while. In the briefest of short-terms, beating Fulham was everything.
St James’ Park sought redemption for Sunday’s derby defeat at Sunderland (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
It was not a full-throated, full-blooded response to that 1-0 loss at the Stadium of Light, but rather a slow awakening.
Yoane Wissa’s opening goal on his belated, long-awaited full debut did not reflect the pattern of the early moments, but Newcastle roused themselves when Fulham equalised and played with sporadic vigour. Having a recognisable striker on the pitch was a welcome novelty. So was the late winner they scored rather than conceded.
Lewis Miley scored it, the young and wildly assured midfielder filling in at full-back, edging towards the near post as Sandro Tonali swept in a corner in the 92nd minute. At that point, penalties and more desperation and crisis were beckoning, but Miley, who was pushed as he jumped, made contact. “I thought I’d try and flick it on and it luckily hit the back of the net,” the teenager told reporters afterwards. Howe called Miley “outstanding”.
On those brittle moments, games turn and moods turn. A stadium exhaled, a taut Howe punched the air. In this season of false starts and blind alleys and resets, only the very brave or deluded would suggest this might evolve into a turning point, that a revitalised Newcastle will now hammer Chelsea on Saturday, but at least it was a reaction. “The training ground has been a very sombre place,” Howe said. “It was very important we bounced back.”
Lewis Miley sprints away in celebration after his late winner (George Wood/Getty Images)
Wissa’s goal was a tonic, both in the context of the long hangover that has followed Alexander Isak’s departure, his own absence with a knee injury, and within a game that Fulham were threatening to shape.
It came from nowhere; a beautiful, searing, cross-field pass that only Fabian Schar could have played and a first-touch ball from the right by Jacob Murphy which was perfectly delivered for mayhem. Benjamin Lecomte dived low to punch it, straight to Wissa.
When Wissa got his head to another cross in the 19th minute, he had already doubled the number of touches Nick Woltemade had mustered in the Sunderland box the previous weekend, which gives a hint at what Newcastle have lacked. He can beat defenders with pace and movement. He can also lead the press. “Touch wood, we now have the two fit, established strikers we wanted this season to spearhead our attack and to interchange,” Howe said.
Yoane Wissa competes with Fulham’s Raul Jimenez (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Yet Newcastle are adept at beating themselves and Wissa’s tonic was more like a sugar rush.
At the back, three defenders were shunted out of position — Tino Livramento at left-back, Schar at left centre-half, and Miley deputising at right-back with minimal preparation — and a nervous ninth successive fixture without a clean sheet was the consequence. When Fulham ran at them, they were flaky and hesitant and, for Sasa Lukic’s equaliser, they bordered on the non-existent.
On this occasion, adversity was a spur and more of that may be necessary. Livramento left the field with a knee injury that Howe described as “worrying”, while Lewis Hall, Dan Burn, Sven Botman, Kieran Trippier, Emil Krafth and Jamaal Lascelles all missed out, leaving Newcastle to see out the game with Alex Murphy on the left of their defence. “I don’t have many more rabbits to pull out of the hat, to be honest, so we’re in dangerous territory,” Howe said.
In another sense, brutal and basic, the immediate danger has passed. The trapdoor that wobbled beneath them is stilled, for now. Newcastle needed to win and they won. They really had no alternative.