It was a massive win for Newcastle United on Saturday, where Bruno Guimaraes’ 90th-minute winner earned us a priceless win in the Premier League.
It felt vital to bounce back from our away defeat to Brighton and build on our midweek victory over Benfica in Europe, but it wasn’t a classic or particularly good performance.
Following my piece on [three things I liked](https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2025/10/26/3-things-i-liked-from-newcastle-2-1-fulham/) from the game, here are two things I did not…
**Taking foot off the gas at 1-0**
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Saturday felt like as much of a mental challenge as a physical, with United seeming to drop deep after going 1-0 ahead, and mirroring other matches (Arsenal, Forest) this season and last. Gladly, United overcame the Fulham equaliser, but sitting back and almost allowing sides to equalise before sorting out our apparent mental block will not always see a positive outcome.
What makes it all the stranger is that United didn’t appear to suffer from the “taking the foot off the gas syndrome” against Benfica midweek when the lads went in 1-0 up at half-time, same as Saturday. I’m sure it’s something which has Eddie Howe scratching his head too.
It’s probably a combination of trying to manage the game within the game, with the hectic schedule the team has, (and there will always be spells where either side is on top in any game), and if Murphy scores the second like he really should when clean through in the first half then we’re not having this conversation, but it’s something that the lads need to get a grip of as it will not always end positively like it did on Saturday.
**We’re too nice…again**
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Subpar refereeing is just the standard for the Premier League these days, but Peter Bankes was particularly awful on Saturday. He allowed Fulham to execute the lower league game plan effectively. We all know that teams from lower divisions use their physicality to even the playing field when they cannot match a side for quality if they meet in the cup.
Fulham are entitled to play the game however they want to try and get a result; of course, that’s the nature of the beast. However, the ref facilitated them being overly physical, with Woltemade being grappled at every opportunity. The two-arm holding, from Bassey mainly, extended into foul territory pretty much every time, but the ref just ignored it on dozens of occasions.
Where I have the issue is with our players not adapting to this sort of referring, seemingly ever, and going down theatrically to draw the referee’s attention. We all hate it, but look how it’s cost us already this season, Gabriel’s punch on Woltemade being the most egregious example. What’s more frustrating is we didn’t seem to have this problem in 2022/23 when pretty much every other week other fanbases and pundits were crying about our dark arts.
Perhaps, Eddie took that to heart, as he mentioned on multiple occasions that we’re not that sort of side, and has told the lads to play as honestly as possible? Commendable, if true, but when every other side is taking advantage of the awful referees in this country week in, week out, being nice will get you nowhere.