Fulham manager Álvaro Arbeloa was pleased with the reaction shown by his side on Saturday afternoon.
Going behind to Jacob Murphy’s thunderbolt with just 10 minutes to play, heads could have dropped. Instead, we earned a valuable point courtesy of Rodrigo Muniz’s clever finish three minutes later.
“We want to be a team that plays in a way that we like to play but, for me, the most important thing is our principle and our character, our mentality, and we have to be a team that always fights until the end, even in the worst condition,” Arbeloa said.
“And we did it pretty well. Obviously, when you are playing at home it's easier because our supporters help us a lot, but I am really proud of the response of the players.
“For me, the best thing about this team is we are learning. Because in the first two-three games, we played well, but we had some problems with the transition, and we are controlling much, much better now.
“Against Man United, against Ipswich, we had some problems when we scored the first goal, and the last minutes we didn't control the game as we wanted to do it, and now I think we are playing much better until the last minute.
“We are a new team, we are progressing. Small steps, but for me as a coach, what I see from my players is they are learning, they are improving, and we are working hard.
“It's going to be a long season, and every week is going to be very, very hard, but I think we are in the right track.”
Muniz has had to be patient this season, but he was hugely effective off the bench against Newcastle, disrupting their defenders no end, in addition to grabbing the equaliser.
Asked how big a moment that was for the striker, Arbeloa replied: “Really important.
“I felt that the game was for him, because Newcastle were marking us man to man, so we have space in front, and they forced us to play long balls, and I think Rodrigo is very strong in this situation.
“He scored one goal, but they could only stop him with fouls, so I think he did really well. I think it's very important for us, and for me, because I need a player like Rodrigo that can score goal, but he can [also] create so many chances for us.”