Tim Krul (8.5) - Outstanding today, the young Dutchman showed why he is our number one. Made some superb saves, which kept us with a two goal cushion for long enough to help us hold on for the win. His positioning for their goal was poor but after the saves his made, one can’t really fault him.
Danny Simpson (7.5) – Apart from a poor period in the first half when he gave the ball away needlessly, he was very good today. Made some key tackles and clearances and also put the odd good ball into the box.
Steven Taylor (8) – Another one who was outstanding today. Won many tackles and kept Fulham at bay for much of the game. He seems to be growing in confidence as he defended really well today.
Fabricio Coloccini (8) – Led the team well and again put in a solid performance. Read the game superbly and showed why he is our most important player at the moment.
Ryan Taylor (6.5) – Struggled quite a bit today. Had a difficult time handling Damien Duff. With that said, he did go forward a lot more today than in the previous games and so it helped us on attack. It was also his quick thinking which got us to open the scoring.
Gabriel Obertan (7.5) – Had a bit of a mixed game. He seems to lack a quality ball into the box although he did look dangerous when attacking the defender. He needs to do that more. He was however involved in the build up to our second goal with a good ball to Ba, after a neat run.
Yohan Cabaye (8) – I thought he too had a good game. He got stuck in, wasn’t afraid to shoot at goal and as we know it was his shot that led to our opener. Seemed to grow in confidence with that and also played some fine balls today.
Cheik Tiote (7.5) – Today was by far his best performance of the season. Broke up many Fulham attacks and won some tackles without losing the ball in dangerous areas. Seems to be getting rid of that rustiness which was evident in the previous games.
Jonas Gutierrez (7.5) – Another who grew in confidence as the game went on. His work rate was immense and recovered well after a rather quiet first half.
Peter Lovenkrands (4) – After 30 minutes, it felt as though we were playing with ten men as the Dane was largely anonymous. He was rightfully substituted after contributing very little.
Leon Best (9) – In contrast to his striker partner, he scored two very good goals. The one was a pure striker’s finish and the other was a touch of class, as he took one touch before turning the ball home. His work rate was very good too.
Substitutes
Demba Ba (8) – An impressive cameo from Ba, who showed more in the 30 minutes today than he did in all of his other outings. Set up our second with a dangerous early ball into the box and was also unlucky not to score when he hit the cross bar late on.
Haris Vuckic (N/A) – Looked good in the five minutes he was on for before going off with a hand injury.
Alan Smith (N/A) – Hardly did anything noteworthy when replacing Vuckic.
Newcastle United Man of the Match – Leon Best
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