Newcastle United had to settle for a 1-1 home draw with 10-man Fulham in the Premier League on Saturday after a Callum Wilson penalty cancelled out Matt Ritchie's own goal which fired the visitors ahead in a scrappy encounter.
The result provisionally lifted Fulham out of the relegation zone as they moved one place up to 17th on 10 points from 14 games with a superior goal difference to 18th-placed Burnley who have two games in hand.
Newcastle moved two places up to 12th on 18 points from 13 games but they will take few positives from a turgid performance as the Magpies were fortunate to scrape a share of the spoils.
Fulham manager Scott Parker complained about the penalty decision arguing that Wilson was fouled outside the area and praised his team for a valiant effort.
"In the second half it's the penalty decision which has decided the game in that sense," he told Sky Sports.
"I would rather stand here saying the referee has made a mistake but we have all this technology and we are still making the same mistakes. That's criminal.
"For what I have just seen - and I'm not standing here trying to defend it - the contact was made outside of the box and (Wilson)then goes into the box and dives.
"I have nothing but praise for my team. It's a difficult place to come to and for 45 minutes we dominated the game. Then we get a man sent off and it's roll your sleeves up."
Newcastle boss Steve Bruce had a different view of the incident and was unhappy with his team's display.
"We got the penalty and when you look at it and analyse it I think the referee has made the right call," he said.
"We can perform better than we saw tonight and that is always a concern. We didn't see enough and that is disappointing."
Fulham's Ademola Lookman was a constant threat all evening and his inviting corner led to the opening goal as defender Tosin Adarabioyo headed it towards the far post and the ball ricocheted off Ritchie's face into the net.
Newcastle were awarded the penalty in the 64th minute after Wilson was fouled by Joachim Andersen, who was shown a second yellow card for the challenge, and the home side's forward sent goalkeeper Alphonse Areola the wrong way with his spot-kick.
The lively Lookman had home keeper Karl Darlow at full stretch with a stinging drive four minutes later before Areola denied Joelinton at the other end.
(Writing by Zoran Milosavljevic; Editing by Toby Davis and Pritha Sarkar)
