Relief all round as Magpies leave it late - again

FOR a moment Alan Pardew looked destined to run all the way down the touchline from his technical area in front of the Milburn Stand and join in his players' celebrations Jose Mourinho style.

Instead the Newcastle United manager deviated and charged straight into a group of fans. When he eventually emerged, his shirt had come loose from his trousers and he gave goalkeeper Andy Woodman a high-five in satisfaction.

While all this was going on, £9m man Papiss Cisse had been joined by Moussa Sissoko in jumping in with ecstatic supporters behind the corner flag, as the other players danced around in delight.

It might not have been the first time Cisse has hit a stoppage time winning goal this season, but it certainly felt like this predatory strike against Fulham will prove the most important.

For the third successive home match, the Senegalese striker created space for himself in the penalty box before finding the net with a precisely placed volley in the third additional minute of stoppage time.

Cisse might have been booked for his celebration, but his fifth yellow card of the season – which has arrived too late to face a one match suspension – failed to detract from the significance of his 12th goal of the campaign.

Newcastle are now five points clear of the bottom three with six matches remaining following Wigan's draw with QPR and gives Newcastle some extra breathing space ahead of the visit of Sunderland on Sunday.

Cisse had already missed a number of good chances and it looked as if Newcastle would have to make do with a point in the heat of a relegation battle. When it did arrive, the whole of Tyneside knew how important it was.

It was an afternoon with its problems early on, too. In the continued absence of Cheik Tiote, Pardew used the return of Yoan Gouffran as an opportunity to give Cisse greater assistance in attack.

Yet because of a hamstring injury which forced Davide Santon to be carried down the tunnel with a little more than quarter of an hour on the clock, the experiment had to been scrapped prematurely.

Steven Taylor's reaction to a headed miss – punching thin air and stomping back in to position – was one of personal frustration and was indicative of much of Newcastle's play. Despite plenty of endeavour going forward, they rarely tested former Middlesbrough goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer.

In fact the best chances of the first half fell to Fulham. The first of those arrived early, when Dimitar Berbatov's outlandish shot with the outside of his right boot curled marginally over.

And then second was when Berbatov's quality created an opening for Bryan Ruiz, who looked destined to score from eight yards when Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa somehow slid in to block for a corner.

There was also a scare when Damien Duff's cross threatened to bounce in off Yanga-Mbiwa, while Tim Krul had to make a magnificent point-blank save from Ruiz on the stroke of half-time.

The enforced changes to the way Newcastle had been planning for the fixture courtesy of Santon's early withdrawal will clearly had an effect. Gouffran suddenly had to revert to the left-wing role he had been operating since his arrival from Bordeaux and Gutierrez then had to adapt – and did – to the left-back role he struggled with at Manchester City eight days earlier.

But in getting to the interval level, Newcastle became more of an attacking force after the restart when they began to press more up the pitch.

Where Fulham had passed in triangles to make space in the first half, Newcastle suddenly closed them down with greater competence and that made it more difficult for the visitors to retain possession.

And inside the first 15 minutes of the second half Newcastle were more threatening. Cisse, who had missed the target from 12 yards in the first half when he should have laid a return pass to Sylvain Marveaux, was the man most likely to score.

After Schwarzer was forced to jump to his right to protect his goal from a goalbound Cisse effort from a tight angle, the he somehow hit the post from close-range moments later.

When Marveaux's corner was flicked goalwards by Gouffran, the ball shaved the top of Sascha Reither's arm before hitting the woodwork, Cisse struck the post again with the rebound when it looked easier to score.

There was also a low save from Schwarzer to deny a Taylor shot from the edge of the box during a second half that became very much about preserving a point for Fulham.

That said there was still an occasional break and to highlight the point Krul's flying, one-handed save to get to a free Berbatov header destined for the top left corner proved crucial with 22 minutes left.

As the minutes ticked by there was a sense it was not going to be Newcastle's day. Schwarzer made a fine near post save to deny Cisse's downward header from Vurnon Anita's perfect delivery and 50-50 decisions for referee Kevin Friend to call tended to go Fulham's way.

But, after the fourth official had signalled five extra minutes, the moment 51,000 Geordies had been waiting for arrived.

Despite some excellent defending from Fulham, Yohan Cabaye's shot from outside the box rolled towards Cisse. The African's first touch lifted the ball over his markers before a second was a well directed half volley beyond Schwarzer's outstretched right hand.

When the celebrations died down, the reality set in. Cisse's dramatic goal secured another vital three points in Newcastle's attempts to stay in the Premier League. Next up in the Premier League: Sunderland.

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