Fulham - Newcastle

What a great way to start a Saturday!  (Proper) Football with Fulham at 10:00 followed by The Ohio State University (American) football.

This is Martin Jol's 101st match as Manager of the Cottagers and so far he 36 wins and 25 draws against 39 losses.  If they were all league matches it would be 133 points/300, which is . . . not great.  It equates out to roughly a 50 point season in the EPL.   But where Jol has done better than expected is away from Craven Cottage.  52 of those 100 matches have been on the road, and he has 13 wins and 14 draws against 25 defeats.  Coming away with points more than 50% of the time is something Fulham fans have not been accustomed to.  As great as Roy was, one away win was what was expected and often seen.

Our trips to Newcastle under Jol have both been 1 goal losses.  In August 2011, Fulham looked impressive for large chunks of the match, only to fall behind 0-2 on Leon Best's brace.   Clint Dempsey's goal in the 88th minute narrowed the margin, but no equalizer was found.  Last April's match was particularly cruel as Papa Cisse found the net in the 3rd minute of stoppage time in an otherwise evenly matched affair.

Newcastle seems to be in greater disarray this fall with Manager Alan Pardew being the favorite to be the first manager sacked this season.  They have certainly failed to impress in two matches so far, being routed 0-4 at Man City, then playing to a scoreless draw at home to West Ham.  I think the Cottagers are much closer to West Ham than City, so I expect to see a similar result this Saturday.

I believe we will need a few more matches before all the kinks can be worked out among our returning players and our new signees.   I think Jol will need several matches to figure out which combination of midfielders will provide Fulham with the appropriate pace and attack.  Because of this, I fear our attack this Saturday will be lacking.  Fortunately, we will be playing the Magpies and not the Gunners who found space easily and often.   Our defense shut down Sunderland and should do the same to Newcastle.

Unfortunately, this leads to a 0-0 draw, but one point at St. James Park is better than none, and 4 points from 2 trips to the NE is even better.