Newcastle United will be wondering how they did not manage to win this game as they dominated the second half and played some of their best football of the season.

The three points looked to have been secured when Jacob Murphy finally made their pressure count with a wonderful curling shot from 25 yards, but Newcastle failed to hold on to their lead.

Some weak hold-up play from Will Osula – a feature of a lacklustre performance from the striker – failed to relieve the pressure and when the ball was worked back into the box, Newcastle had plenty of bodies back but failed to clear. It was a smart, flicked finish from Rodrigo Muniz.

Newcastle could still have won it, but Bernd Leno made a good late save to keep out Lewis Hall’s effort while Lukas Hornicek also made a stunning leap in stoppage time to tip away Ryan Sessegnon’s long-range effort.

It was a much better performance from Matthias Jaissle’s side, but the team still have obvious frailties, particularly up front, where Osula and Yoane Wissa were anonymous again.

Fulham’s goalkeeper also made two important saves in the first half to deny Harvey Barnes, who missed the best chance of the lot when he fired wide at the start of the second half, making it a hat-trick of missed opportunities.

The big moment in the first half came when referee Rob Jones, backed by his VAR assistant, ruled out Dan Burn’s goal. It was a clever set-piece routine from Newcastle, with Burn timing his run to the near post to flick Murphy’s cross into the net.

But Jones believed that Wissa had fouled Timothy Castagne, holding him back so he was unable to get out to play Burn offside. It appeared to have been a deliberate ploy for Wissa to block the Fulham defender, but the officials decided he was holding on to Castagne rather than blocking him. It was a tight call, especially given those sorts of blocks are made all the time inside the area at corners.

Newcastle were a lot better than they had been in their home defeat by Everton on Monday night and Barnes missed three good chances: one saved by the feet of Leno and the other by the goalkeeper’s head. The third opportunity was the best of the lot, teed up by Wissa, Barnes ran on to the ball but blasted it the wrong side of a post.

Fulham had chances too. Oscar Bobb forced a full-stretch save from Hornicek and the Czech goalkeeper was also needed to palm away a ferocious volley from Josh King.

More to follow....