Key events
64 min: MC 1-0 BRE. Foden jinks his way into the box down the left and shapes a little bit like Zizou in the 2002 Champions League final, adjusting his body in an attempt to steer across Valdimarsson and into the bottom right. Blocked.
37 min: NEW 1-1 FUL. Some pinball in the Fulham box, and the ball nearly drops to Wissa again. Not quite. Livramento tries to plant a curler into the top-right corner but miscues. This is an open and entertaining game, and good luck predicting which way it’s going to go.
36 min: NEW 1-1 FUL. Jimenez has the opportunity to release Wilson down the right, but hesitates, allowing Ramsey to dispossess him. Wilson leaps around in great frustration, denied another opportunity to run clear on goal by some faffing from his team-mates.
60 min: MC 1-0 BRE. Brentford certainly haven’t given up on this. Schade drives at Khusanov but the defender holds his ground. Then Henry nearly makes it into the box down the left, but again Khusanov snuffs out the danger. Khusanov is much improved on his earlier skittish self. A reminder that he should have been sent packing in the early stages.
32 min: NEW 1-1 FUL. Barnes tries a curler from the left-hand corner of the Fulham box, but gets it all wrong. Goal kick.
31 min: NEW 1-1 FUL. Jimenez slides in on Miley, who was sizing up a long-range shot only to start snoozing. Kevin takes up the loose ball, and has the opportunity to release Wilson clear on goal from the halfway line, but clanks a simple pass into the nearest defender. Newcastle get away with a big one there.
30 min: NEW 1-1 FUL. Lukic is booked for tugging back Ramsey. No real need, because Ramsey was going nowhere. On the touchline, Marco Silva gives his take to the assistant referee.
54 min: MC 1-0 BRE. Ajer strides into space down the inside-right channel and sends a fine rising drive towards the top-left corner. Trafford deals with it very well. That’s the first serious save the City keeper has had to make.
26 min: NEW 1-1 FUL. Miley overcooks a header back to his keeper and the ball sails out for a Fulham corner. He makes up for his error by clearing the set piece. St James’ Park has descended into pensive near-silence, though NIck Woltemade receives an aural pat on the back from his supporters as he warms up along the touchline. He’s forgiven, even if he’ll never be allowed to totally forget.
24 min: NEW 1-1 FUL. Murphy whips a glorious cross along the corridor of uncertainty from the Newcastle right. Had any of his team-mates taken a gamble, they’d now be celebrating after prodding home from a couple of yards. But no.
Some officiating admin from both games. Savinho wants a penalty for Manchester City, bursting into the box down the right, but Ajer’s challenge was fine. Meanwhile up north, Schar is booked for hauling Jimenez back by the collar.
Manchester City 1-0 Brentford. The game has restarted at the Etihad. We’re going dualbox on NFL RedZone headlong into fiasco territory.
19 min: NEW 1-1 FUL. There are more goals in this game all right. The ball bagatelles around the Toon box. The in-form Wilson brings it under control by cushioning it into the path of Kevin, who aims for the bottom right. Not enough pace on the shot, and Ramsdale claims. But still. Somewhere in the multiverse, it’s now 2-2.
18 min: NEW 1-1 FUL. Newcastle’s goal came from Schar’s wonderful crossfield pass; Andersen did something very similar to set Robinson away for Fulham’s equaliser. Anything you can do, etc. And here comes another fine diagonal ball! Willock dinks it across from the right, but Wissa mistimes his leap on the left-hand corner of the six-yard box and can’t get a header flying goalwards.
GOAL! Newcastle United 1-1 Fulham (Lukic 16)
… but St James’ Park falls quiet again, as Fulham strike back in short order! A bit of space for Robinson out on the left. He crosses delightfully for Lukic, who plants an unstoppable header into the left-hand side of the net, the wrong-footed Ramsdale with no chance of reacting!
14 min: NEW 1-0 FUL. “It’s hardly been an inspiring start, touch of luck about the goal,” shrugs Toon fan Chris Paraskevas. “Fair to say there’s a fair bit of work to before we enter the territory of recovering from Sunday’s humiliation. Weird feeling around the stadium (I can confidently report from my backyard in Sydney).” It was subdued before the opener, yes, though to be fair, in the wake of the derby farce, Eddie Howe has also had plenty of vocal support from the home fans this evening.
12 min: NEW 1-0 FUL. Fulham had started so brightly as well. But Newcastle’s third and fourth touch in enemy territory has undone them. Wissa scores on his first start for his new club!
GOAL! Newcastle United 1-0 Fulham (Wissa 10)
Schar, quarterbacking on the halfway line, sends a long diagonal towards Murphy on the right touchline. Murphy fizzes a low cross into the six-yard box. Lecomte gets down to parry, but only tees up Wissa, six yards out. Wissa immediately meets the rebound and pings the ball into the bottom right from close range. Poor keeping but lovely move and clinical finish!
9 min: NEW 0-0 FUL. Fulham have made 20 successful passes in the opposition’s final third, as opposed to Newcastle’s two. However, stats are worth very little, and …
8 min: NEW 0-0 FUL. Jimenez makes a nuisance of himself in the Newcastle box, but skittles over a defender. Free kick. But Fulham come again, Jimenez nearly finding Smith Rowe free in the box with a cleverly directed header down the inside-right channel. Thiaw comes across to cover and clear.
6 min: NEW 0-0 FUL. Lukic sends Kevin into space down the left. The exotically monickered Brazilian flies down the left and wins a corner, but Wilson’s delivery is not all that.
4 min: NEW 0-0 FUL. Fulham have started confidently enough. No real early drama to report, though.
HALF TIME: Manchester City 1-0 Brentford
City lead thanks to Cherki’s glorious curler. Abdukodir Khusanov is lucky to still be on the pitch, though, having denied Kevin Schade a goalscoring opportunity.
2 min: NEW 0-0 FUL. An early corner at St James’ Park for Fulham. The holders deal with it easily enough. Fulham are wearing a neon-green away kit. Stabilo Boss should sue.
Meanwhile up at St James’ Park … Newcastle United v Fulham kicks off. Part two of our SuperClocko™ patented Three-Half MBM Fiasco-in-the-making© is go!
45 min: There will be three additional first-half minutes.
44 min: It’s pretty quiet at the Etihad. O’Reilly, perhaps lulled into a false sense of security, plays a dreadfully lazy backpass down the Brentford left, nearly letting Schade free on goal. This time Khusanov is the hero, sliding in to flick the ball back to Trafford just in time.
42 min: Yarmoliuk tries to release Damsgaard into the City box down the right. Khusanov gets ahead of the striker, but doesn’t deal with the situation, and Brentford are gifted a corner. Nothing comes of the set piece, City’s young defender getting away with more uncertainty. This hasn’t been a banner performance from Khusanov, who probably should already be in the bath.
40 min: The rain continues to sheet down. “The rain in Manchester won’t bother those away fans who’ve spent their lives at a bus stop in Hounslow,” argues Justin Kavanagh. “Nor their Dublin-born manager.”
38 min: Brentford started brightly, but they’re boxed in now. Cherki floats a wedge down the inside-right channel to find Foden in the box. Foden telescopes a leg to take the ball under control, but seems undecided over what do next. Flick over the keeper’s head? Or swivel and shoot? In the end he does neither, though his brief display of skilled juggling registers seven-and-a-half out of ten on our Jim-Baxter-o-meter™. Entertaining nonetheless, in other words.
36 min: Cherki really hit that, though. The pace of the shot made for a doubly delicious aesthetic treat, as the ball hit the top-right corner of the back of the net, dropping down onto the pole at the bottom before whistling back out of the goal and past the prone keeper at high speed. Such a sweet goal.
