Sandro Tonali was a second-half substitute as Newcastle United won 2-1 against Fulham.
Sasa Lukic’s 56th-minute goal for the Cottagers cancelled out Jacob Murphy’s first-half opener, which left the Magpies staring at a fourth draw of the Premier League season that would have placed them in the bottom six of the table.
But captain Bruno Guimaraes popped up in the 90th minute to record a third win of the league campaign, having previously drawn to Aston Villa, Leeds United and AFC Bournemouth, and lost to Liverpool, Arsenal and Brighton & Hove Albion.
Eddie Howe on Newcastle United’s ‘mood-changing’ winner
Asked if it was a “mood-changing” goal, United boss Eddie Howe said: “Yeah, I think it is. We've seen many times, I think, historically, when you score late goals it's not just the game that you've won that is affected, it's, hopefully for us, the mood, even the attitude when you're in that position.
“Again, there's more belief that you can find a winner, that you've got players that can decide games, so I think it has a big knock-on effect, just like we've had to battle the other way because we conceded late at times this year and you have to battle that becoming a habit.
“To break that today, I think, was really important.”
Eddie Howe praises Sandro Tonali after illness
Immediately after Lukic equalised for Fulham, Howe made a triple substitution. Sven Botman was forced off with a head injury and replaced by Fabian Schar, while Tonali and Harvey Barnes came on for Lewis Miley and Murphy.
Tonali has been struggling with illness this week. He made the bench for the 3-0 win over Benfica in the Champions League but was an unused substitute.
Howe revealed ahead of the Fulham game that the Italian was “touch and go” but again made the bench before being introduced in the 61st minute. And following the match, Howe praised Tonali for “thinking of the team”.
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Howe said: “I think all options are open. I had a little chat with Sandro at the start of the second half as the game was developing and just said, ‘look, how do you feel? Do you feel like you can come on and be yourself?’ And he said, yeah, I feel okay
“Whereas yesterday, talking to him, he still felt that he wasn't 100% fit, so it's great to have him so honest and thinking of the team, not himself. It's a great quality to have.”
On the triple change, Howe added: I just felt that probably the difference today was our subs came on and made a big difference, but you'd be surprised if they didn't. You look at the quality. Sandro Tonali's coming on, Harvey Barnes, Fabian that we've just spoken about.
“We had a very strong bench today and hopefully that can make the difference more often than not for us.”
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