Lewis Miley heads dramatic late winner as holders Newcastle edge Fulham

To remedy a local let down, enter the local hero. After 56 years without a trophy before glorious victory at Wembley in March Newcastle were never going to let go of the Carabao Cup without a fight, but few of the impressionable children walking up Barrack Road for a pre-Christmas treat imagined their heroes having to hang on to the silverware this grimly before Lewis Miley’s stoppage-time winner.

The Magpies had dominated without often threatening the killer blow, with the constant threat of their own doubt undermining them after the miserable derby defeat at Sunderland that cast a cloud of gloom over St James’ Park well before the Wednesday afternoon rain set in.

Manchester City await over two legs in January’s last four; “always the most difficult [team] to prepare for,” as Eddie Howe put it, but the manager was more focussed on his team’s power of recovery than projecting too far forward. “There are so many positives,” he said, with particular reference to “outstanding” match winner Miley.

Reaching the semi-finals, for the third year in four of his tenure, of a competition that has given him and the club so much is a much-needed fillip. “We loved last year,” Howe said. “We loved everything about the experience we went through, and the two-legged semi-final makes it unique.”

Howe may hope much of this struggle will eventually be minor detail. Yoane Wissa marked his long-awaited first start for the club with a goal inside 10 minutes, tapping in the first even half-chance that came the home side’s way after Benjamin Lecomte could only push out Jacob Murphy’s cross, but it did little to steady Newcastle – or to suggest that Fulham would eventually be beaten on this ground for the second time in less than two months. “A difficult one to take, another one,” as Marco Silva lamented.

Tension had lingered in the air at kick-off. Instances of genuine anger with manager and team have been as rare as hen’s teeth in the four years of Howe, but the loss to Sunderland invoked feelings reminiscent of some of the indignities of the latter days of Alan Pardew or the Steve Bruce era for many.

Bruno Guimarães had acknowledged in his programme notes that “we know that it will take time to put it right for you” and even if the manager had disagreed with some of his captain’s post-match virulence, he was candid after victory. “Sunday happened and we were devastated at ourselves,” he admitted, saluting the home fans who chanted his name. “Support for me is really support for the players, and I can’t thank them enough.”

To continue in the Carabao Cup – the cup, their cup, as it has become under Howe – was of paramount importance. Yet with the prevailing mood and the current rash of defensive injuries, with Miley filling in at right-back – “We did a lot of work with him [on it] this morning,” Howe said of the last-ditch nature of using his midfielder there – it was a tentative opening from the home side.

Yoane Wissa scores his first Newcastle goal. Photograph: Lee Keuneke/Every Second Media/Shutterstock

Wissa’s strike failed to settle them with Fulham continuing to look more poised, and the lead lasted barely five minutes. Antonee Robinson delivered an inviting cross from the left for the onrushing and unfettered Sasa Lukic to pummel a header past Aaron Ramsdale, his second leveller at St James’ this season after October’s in the Premier League.

The teeming rain relented and after Fulham’s fast start Newcastle began to find some fluency, intermittently bringing Miley and Tino Livramento into midfield to master possession. Eventually Guimarães cut through the patient passing and bludgeoned an effort at goal, with Lecomte punching away unconvincingly and Wissa nearly snaffling a second in the aftermath. Murphy then had a shot charged down by Sander Berge from close in as Howe’s team knocked on the door.

The weight of Newcastle’s heavily stocked substitutes’ bench (“It’s a different reality,” said Silva) hung over proceedings as the second half began cagily, with the game begging to be broken open. Who would be the solution, and when? Lecomte’s unsteady hands again suggested they might be the answer as they spilled a grass-cutter from Harvey Barnes, fortunately only resulting in a home corner. Silva’s largely well-organised side further flirted with self-destruction when Joachim Andersen walked Murphy’s low cross into his own net, but the winger had raced on to Guimarães’ slide-rule pass too early and was flagged offside.

Fulham remained solid and willing (if not always able) to counter with penalties on the horizon, while the stands felt fearful of the same old story of much of this season, which has so often been possession without real penetration. A scramble in the box offered what seemed like a last chance to Miley, whose shot finally brought the best out of Lecomte. Yet the 19-year-old local hero had more, rising to head in the resulting corner from Sandro Tonali to finally lift the post-derby blues.