Half-time: Fulham 1 Newcastle 0

Steve Sidwell’s deflected effort on 18 minutes gave Fulham a half-time lead at Craven Cottage.

Damien Duff pulled the ball back for the midfielder, whose shot ended up in the net after striking first Newcastle’s Mike Williamson and then the underside of the bar.

After three matches without a goal and seven without a league win, the breakthrough was a much needed boost for Fulham – as was skipper Brede Hangeland’s return from suspension.

They should have been two up soon afterwards, when Dimitar Berbatov dodged Fabricio Coloccini to leave himself one-on-one with Tim Krul only to shoot straight at the Magpies keeper.

Berbatov again fired straight at Krul eight minutes later, this time from point-blank range, before Newcastle came close to equalising when Coloccini’s header was cleared off the line by Sascha Riether.

And Riether produced another goal-line block just before the break, denying Demba Ba at the far post after Fulham had failed to clear a corner.

Fulham (4-4-2): Schwarzer; Riether, Hughes, Hangeland, Riise; Duff, Baird, Sidwell, Kacaniklic; Rodallega, Berbatov.
Subs: Etheridge, Senderos, Petric, Karagounis, Richardson, Diarra, Dejagah.

Click here for our Fulham v Newcastle quiz

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