Fulham 5 Newcastle 2

In a game of two halves Fulham emerged victors in a thrilling encounter at Craven Cottage.

Following on from the disappointing defeat at Ewood Park last weekend, Martin Jol made jus tone change with Steve Sidwell replacing the injured Moussa Dembele.

In windy conditions Newcastle had by far the better of the first half with David Stockdale producing a series of fine saves to keep Fulham in it. But, just as you thought Fulham would make it to half time, thereby giving Jol the chance to reshuffle things and stir his team up, Newcastle took the lead two minutes before the break.

The goal came from Danny Guthrie after the player had collected a ball from Ben Arta and smashed it past Stockdale from all of thirty yards out.

Having already made one change, in the 37th minute, when Sidwell was replaced by Andrew Johnson, Jol made a second at half time bringing on Chris Baird for Bryan Ruiz.

The change made all the difference as Fulham now looked to be the better team. The equalizer came seven minutes into the half when Newcastle old-boy Damien Duff was fouled right on the edge of the box by Santon.

Lee Mason had no hesitation in awarding a penalty and Danny Murphy to beat Krul and score his 50th goal for Fulham. With Newcastle rattled, Fulham were ahead seven minutes later through Clint Demspey.

Johnson picked the ball up on the half way and ran at the Newcastle defence, his ball to Zamora saw Krul pull off a good save from Zamora`s shot but Dempsey was on hand to force it home for his 13th goal of the season.

Six minutes later the lead was extended when Johnson and Zamora combined once again and a crisp shot from Dempsey was enough to give him his 14th goal of the season.

Three minutes later Fulham were out of sight when Lee Mason awarded Fulham a second penalty. Johnson appeared to be impeded by Williamson but battled on and as the ball ran away Krul appeared and wiped Johnson out.

This time it was Zamora who steppe dup and his successful conversion gave him his 7th goal of the season.

Newcastle were now battling for their pride and reduced the arrears with five minutes of normal time left when Ben Arta skipped past Riise and found the bottom corner.

But with a minute of normal time left Dempsey got that well deserved hat-trick when he out-paced Williamson and Coloccini to go one-on-one with Krul and beat the keeper with ease.

A wonderful afternoon`s entertainment and just what the doctor ordered.



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