Local boys put Newcastle into the draw for the next round of the FA Cup on difficult night in London

Newcastle United came away 2-0 winners at Craven Cottage in the FA Cup fourth round but it was a deceiving scoreline in truth.

Fulham were the better side for 90% of the game and it felt more like a game that they lost rather than one that Newcastle won.

That being said, it's not the performance but the result that matters and with so many things going against us as we headed into this one, it feels like an absolutely massive win for the Magpies.

The signs were against us tonight but we came through

Eddie Howe still has a ridiculous list of players unavailable to him heading into a tie on the road where form has not been great this season, and then add to that the fact we were sporting our green kit which also hasn't been kind to us this year, and I'll be honest in saying that my confidence at 6:59pm was pretty low.

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In fact, my confidence was still pretty low come 7:39pm when Sean Longstaff finally broke the deadlock much to the ire of ITV co-commentator Lee Dixon who is probably still crying about the goal being allowed after the ball ricocheted off Bruno Guimaraes' arm before dropping onto Longstaff's left boot for him to fire home.

Jacob Murphy, playing his first game back from injury, missed a great chance early in the half and then had the ball in the back of the net shortly after the Longstaff goal, but it was rightly ruled out after the winger had set off on his run far too early.

Newcastle doubled their lead via a goal-line tap-in by Dan Burn from a well-worked corner. Burn, somehow picked up ITV's player of the match, but for us, besides the goal, he was awful, as were many other players. Probably none more so than Bruno Guimaraes who was nothing short of atrocious - as you will see in our player ratings which will be out tomorrow.

Newcastle reach the fifth round of the FA Cup for the first time since 2020

Fulham made a host of substitutions to try and claw their way back into the game, but by that point, their grip on the tie had gone and Newcastle grew into the game and actually started to play some nice football to see out the game.

It was far from a vintage performance, and truth be told, if we play like that on Tuesday night, Aston Villa will have their wicked way with us.

But let's not think about that just yet and let's celebrate the fact that we're through to the last 16 of the FA Cup for the first time since 2019/20 where Manchester City put an end to our dreams.