Eddie Howe very impressed with Newcastle man who played 45 minutes vs Fulham

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There was not a lot to shout about following Newcastle United’s defeat to Fulham on Saturday.

It was a performance so bad it was described as “awful” by Alan Shearer, while Eddie Howe admitted he made a mistake with his team selection.

The most disappointing aspect of it all, however, was the fact this had appeared to be coming.

Newcastle may have been unbeaten heading into their trip to Craven Cottage and could have gone top of the Premier League table with a win but little about what they’ve done has fully convinced this season.

Anthony Gordon’s body language was slammed by Luke Edwards, while Bruno Guimaraes apologised for the mistake he made for the third goal.

All in all, it was another miserable away day for the Toon Army, which has been a problem for a while now.

Still, and while looking positives may be relatively difficult, Newcastle did at least improve in the second-half and may have equalised to make it 2-2 had Fabian Schar not wasted a brilliant chance.

Howe was also keen to praise some of the players who came on at half-time.

Eddie Howe sends Lewis Hall message after Newcastle lose to Fulham

Speaking to Newcastle World after the game, the Newcastle United manager spoke positively about the displays of both Jacob Murphy and Lewis Hall.

The latter replaced Lloyd Kelly at the interval, playing on the left-hand side of defence for the closing 45 minutes.

“I thought we were better in the second half so there is a degree that the substitutions helped us at that stage, maybe not the latter ones where I thought our performance tailed off in the second period,” he said.

“But definitely the ones at half-time. I thought Lewis Hall did really well and Jacob of course set up the goal. There was a much better feel about the group in the second-half.”

Lewis Hall is building something at Newcastle

Hall endured a difficult opening few months as a Newcastle player and is clearly not yet the finished product, which is only natural for a developing 20-year-old.

Howe has been pleased with Hall’s growing levels of confidence of late and a decent cameo in difficult circumstances will no doubt help build on that even further.