Newcastle United minor injury and the moment that made Callum Wilson shake his head at Fulham – moments missed

A minor injury for Newcastle United

Eddie Howe made four changes to his side that drew 1-1 with AFC Bournemouth a fortnight ago with Callum Wilson, Jacob Murphy, Sean Longstaff and Sven Botman coming in.

Alexander Isak dropped out of the squad entirely with a leg injury while Matt Targett, Ryan Fraser and Joelinton all dropped to the bench.

Target and Fraser both got on the pitch but Joelinton was ‘protected’ after picking up a minor injury.

The Brazilian had played every minute in the Premier League for Newcastle until the trip to Craven Cottage, where he didn’t get on the pitch.

And after the match, Howe explained why.

“Joelinton picked up a knee injury against Bournemouth, and hadn’t trained,” said United’s head coach. “He wanted to be involved, the type of character that he is.

"I wanted to protect him, knowing how important he is. He was there if we needed him in an absolute emergency, and my hand was forced with him.

"Hopefully, a week’s training will make a difference for him, and he’ll be back next week, and available for selection.”

New signing in attendance

On Friday morning, Newcastle confirmed the signing of Australian teenager Garang Kuol from Central Coast Mariners.

And on Saturday afternoon, the forward stood alongside the 2,300 strong Toon Army in the away end at Craven Cottage.

There’s no better way to embrace your new club and its fan base than immersing yourself in a Newcastle away end, even if it is slightly naive. But he would have been impressed with what he witnessed on Saturday.

Though as my colleague Joe Buck pointed out, the biggest surprise of the day was that he had the 80+ away points required to actually attend the match!

The supporters sang throughout as Callum Wilson, Sean Longstaff and a Miguel Almiron brace saw Newcastle capitalise on Nathaniel Chalobah’s early red card for the hosts.

Kuol will return to Central Coast Mariners for the start of the A-League season before officially joining Newcastle in January.

A famous face alongside the Newcastle co-owners

There was a surprise famous face sat behind the Newcastle co-owners at Craven Cottage as iconic television presenter and Magpies fan Dec Donnelly was in attendance.

Dec was sat behind Amanda Staveley, Mehrdad Ghodoussi and Jamie Reuben, who tweeted: “The team is all here @ghodoussi, @antanddec – @NUFC - Up the Mags.”

The I’m A Celebrity co-host picked a great game to attend as United picked up an impressive first away win of the campaign. Though his presence did raise one big question – where was Ant?

The moment that made Callum Wilson shake his head

It took Newcastle just 11 minutes to break the deadlock and make their man advantage count at Craven Cottage as Wilson turned in Joe Willock’s header on the line to grab his third of the season.

But a bizarre VAR check led to a three minute stoppage before play eventually restarted.

The lengthy delay saw video assistant referee Mike Dean scrutinise Newcastle’s opener by checking whether any player was offside despite it being evident on first viewing that no one was even close.

As Fulham waited to restart the game in the centre circle, Wilson stood with his hands on his hips, shaking his head to his team-mates, confident in the knowledge the goal would be given.

The goal was given but Wilson still left the field clearly frustrated he couldn’t extend his goal tally against 10 men.

"No striker, when your team is 4-0 up, is going to be happy to come off,” he said.

Bruno’s warm-up

As the Newcastle players took to the pitch to warm-up and take part in various drills prior to kick-off, Bruno Guimaraes trained away from his team-mates with coach Graeme Jones.

At one stage, Newcastle's matchday squad seemed to be divided into goalkeepers, substitutes, midfielders/attackers, defenders and Guimaraes on his own.

The Brazilian bounced back from an injury scare while on international duty to keep his place in the starting line-up.

And he worked on his long-range passing, spraying the ball around Newcastle’s half of the pitch.

Once again, the 24-year-old was deployed in the No. 6 role but was still able to significantly influence the game from deep.

He helped The Magpies double their advantage in the 33rd minute as his wonderfully weighted clipped ball over the top was sensationally volleyed into the left side of the goal by Almiron. An early goal of the month contender for sure.

Former Newcastle players have afternoons to forget

Ex-Newcastle striker Aleksandar Mitrovic has been in sensational form for Fulham, but he was in for another frustrating afternoon against his former club.

The 28-year-old is yet to find the net against The Magpies and this was arguably his most disappointing outing to date as he was cautioned for dissent following Wilson’s opener and hobbled off with an injury after 37 minutes with his side 2-0 down.

Another former Magpie who was also hooked off early was Swiss full-back Kevin Mbabu on his full Premier League debut for the Cottagers.

For the first time since West Bromwich Albion away in March 2012, Newcastle were 3-0 up in a Premier League away game heading into half-time.

By that point, Fulham boss Marco Silva had seen enough as he substituted Mbabu off before the break – a decision he explained as ‘technical’ and not one forced by an injury.

Despite it being a dismal afternoon for Newcastle's former employees (a certain West Brom boss was even told to ‘cheer up’ by the travelling Newcastle supporters), Mitrovic seemed in decent spirits at half-time as he caught up with his former Fulham team-mate Targett with the pair enjoying a quick laugh together.

But it was Newcastle who were laughing in the end as they moved up to seventh in the table.