Newcastle 1-2 Fulham

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A flat St James' Park bore witness to a second successive home defeat as Fulham punished a listless Newcastle team.

It's easy to say that this was a tired performance, given the lack of quality depth in the squad, but really this seemed to be another case of failing to get it up for a 'lesser' team at home.

And while Fulham have tailed off after a strong start to the season, they still had enough quality to regularly threaten, punishing us for leaving gaps between the back line and midfield.

It could have been a different story, Sandro Tonali just about breaking the bar in half with what would have been one of the all time great Premier League goals had it been half a foot lower - Tony Yeboah-esque, but from further out and in the top corner.

Isak also curled a great effort off the bar late on.

However, these were rare moments of individual quality in a game where Newcastle just about huffed and puffed and did little else, falling out of the game after Murphy had opened the scoring.

Upcoming semi final opponents Arsenal, meanwhile, were gearing up to smash Man City 5-1 ahead of Wednesday's second leg.

That two goal advantage is feeling pretty slim right now.

But after a transfer window that saw us recoup the best part of £30m (eventually, once Juventus pay us for Lloyd Kelly in the summer) and yet again add nobody, these players are going to have to dig deep again, knowing Wembley awaits if they can do better than a two goal defeat.

That will require the crowd to be alive in a way it simply hasn't been lately.

Let's hope everybody can raise their game and get the job done, and bonus points if A) Isak scores and points to the badge or B) we win it in the most spawny fashion, preferably with some egregious refereeing decisions that cause Arteta to literally burst into petulant flames.

Howay the lads, let's smash these, they're-.