Frustrated Souness earns Coleman sympathy

Newcastle 1 Fulham 4

Battered to the very brink of submission for more than an hour, Chris Coleman's side had keeper Mark Crossley to thank for a series of remarkable saves as shots and headers rained in on his goal.

But for Crossley, the Magpies might have scored seven or eight, but by the time they did finally beat him, the game had been snatched from their grasp by a ruthless display of counter-attacking football.

If Collins John's opener came against the run of play and courtesy of a generous decision by referee Howard Webb, there was little wrong with what was to follow as Steed Malbranque scored the second and third and laid on a fourth for Luis Boa Morte.

Craig Bellamy pulled one back 13 minutes from time, but Newcastle's humiliation was complete as they slumped to a second successive Barclays Premiership defeat against a side they fully expected to beat comfortably.

Delighted Fulham boss Chris Coleman admitted his side got the breaks that mattered - the Magpies were furious referee Howard Webb had missed what looked like a clear foul by Zat Knight on Alan Shearer in the run-up to John's opening goal and then waved away strong claims for a penalty three minutes later after the former England skipper appeared to be pushed over by Papa Bouba Diop.

"Graeme (Souness) was getting frustrated," said Coleman. "The first goal, where it looked like it could have been a foul on Alan and it doesn't get given and we go an score a goal, I think frustrated him.

"And then Alan went down in the box. I think maybe that was a penalty because he's not the type of guy to try to con the ref. In the end, it was a bit much and Graeme lost his temper, but I've been there myself and I can understand what he was going through."

However, Coleman was full of praise for the way his players made the most of their good fortune.

"It's a difficult place to come here at the best of times, never mind the way we've been performing away from home," Coleman said.

"We've been poor, really, showed no consistency and today was always going to be difficult for us. I've got to be honest, the ball bounced for us, a few decisions went our way when on other days, they've gone against us, and our keeper was fantastic.

"At 1-0, we were hanging on in there and we managed to hit them on the counter-attack, which was our plan, really, so I was delighted."

Souness, who was sent from the dug-out for his protests, was furious with Webb's first-half display, and bewildered by a game which brought memories of Manchester United's - next weekend's visitors - 6-2 victory on Tyneside two seasons ago flooding back.

"I've never been involved in a game of football like that," he said. "I've been involved in games where you've battered teams and lost 1-0, but never like that - to lose 4-1. We did so much right. Some of our football was excellent, going forward we created things, we created them with some style and we missed gilt-edged chances.

"I think Mark Crossley has played the finest game of football he's ever played in his career. He rode his luck at times and made some incredible saves, and I'm like all the supporters going home tonight, extremely frustrated and somewhat bewildered.

NEWCASTLE: Harper, Hughes (Robert 57), Elliott, O'Brien, Bernard (Ameobi 68), Bellamy, Butt, Bowyer, Jenas, Shearer, Kluivert.

FULHAM: Crossley, Volz, Knight, Rehman, Bocanegra, Malbranque, Diop, Pembridge, Boa Morte, Cole, John (Radzinski 57).

Referee: H Webb (S Yorkshire).