BURN: EURO LESSONS WE HAVE TO LEARN
Captain Dan so desperate for
DAN BURN believes securing a spot in Europe is essential if Newcastle are going to evolve into the major force their Saudi owners expect them to be.
After a top-four finish last season brought trips to the fashion capitals of Milan and Paris,
Burn could be forgiven if he turned his nose up at spending
Thursday night’s in the sort of European backwaters not even Ryanair fly to.
Toon’s stand-in captain admitted playing in the Champions League had been a culture shock in terms of adjusting to playing midweek games on a regular basis.
The goal for Eddie Howe’s men was to continue that learning curve in Europe’s premier club competition.
But with seven games of an injuryravaged season to play, Newcastle are a point behind West Ham and the Europa Conference League qualifying seventh spot, with a Europa League place also in touching distance.
Burn said: “The aim is always going to be to play in the Champions League.
“But we need that experience. We need to be playing in Europe regularly.
“The biggest thing for us to learn is getting used to not training.
“We are a team when we get a lot of training we seem to be a lot better structured and you see better performances.
“With the Champions League and cup games at the start of the season, when we were just playing and recovering, it is really hard to work on things you might not be happy with.
“It is hard to fix those when you are not out on the training pitch doing it.
“Those are things we have got to learn.”
A first away clean sheet since thrashing Sheffield United 8-0 in September was the key to Newcastle’s
third away win in five games. They had to overcome a poor opening 25 minutes Burn called “the worst we have been for a long time”.
Only wayward finishing from Fulham’s
Willian, Rodrigo
Muniz and Joao
Palhinha spared the
Magpies. But there was a big improvement after the break.
For the second game running, Toon had a goal disallowed by VAR. Burn admitted his effort against Everton was rightfully ruled out but the 31-year-old claimed he was pushed into Calvin Bassey for the foul which saw Fabian Schar’s effort harshly chalked off at Craven Cottage.
It fired up Newcastle, and in particular Bruno Guimaraes.
The Brazilian marked his 100th appearance for the club by smashing in the 81st-minute winner (far left) after Harvey Barnes’ cross had only been half cleared to the edge of the box.
It was also a milestone day for Burn. He marked his 150th Premier League start as captain of his boyhood club against the side who let him go in 2016, with a second consecutive game at centre-half having played the last two seasons at left-back.
Burn said: “I have always said centrehalf is my best position.
“I’ve really enjoyed it and it feels as if I am more than capable of playing at Premier League level at centre-half, which is nice to prove that again to people.
“For me personally it is an amazing achievement to have 150 starts in the Premier League.
“To do that and captain Newcastle here, at the place where I got released when I was 25, makes it even more sweet.”
FULHAM (4-2-3-1): Leno 6, Castagne 6, Tosin 7, Bassey 6, Robinson 7, Palhinha 6 (Broja 86), Cairney 7 (Lukic 65, 6), Iwobi 7, Pereira 6 (Traore 65, 6), Willian 6 (Wilson 65, 6), Muniz 6 (Jimenez 86)
NEWCASTLE (4-3-3): Dubravka 7, Krafth 6, Schar 7, Burn 7, Hall 6 (Dummett 90), Longstaff 6, Guimaraes 8, Willock 5 (Anderson 40, 6), J Murphy 6 (Barnes 65, 7), Isak 6, Gordon 7 (Ritchie 90)