Joe Kinnear managed to disparage the entire refereeing profession on the basis of a foul that hardly anyone else noticed yesterday, an overreaction that is par for the course for the interim Newcastle United manager.

His outburst, which is likely to interest the FA, was presumably intended to draw attention away from his team slipping back into the bottom three of the Barclays Premier League. Frustration was understandable given that, at the time of the incident, Newcastle were pushing for a winning goal, but the FA’s Respect campaign, demanding some consideration for the game’s officials, seems almost laughable on afternoons such as this.

“Mickey Mouse” was how Kinnear derided Martin Atkinson. “They don’t seem to care,” he added — just as Kinnear, presumably, does not give a damn about the ramifications of what he says about referees.

It was a blustery end to a cold autumn day. As the rain whipped horizontally into the directors’ box and dampened his cashmere coat, did Fabio Capello wonder why he had braved Craven Cottage in the murk? If he saw a performance that merited an instant call-up to international colours, the England manager must truly be a visionary.

From a long list of unlikely suspects, the consensus was that only Andrew Johnson could possibly have entered Capello’s thinking for the friendly against Germany on November 19, when the Italian plans to experiment. And Johnson would be advised not to be presumptuous.

Jimmy Bullard? Stretching it, hard though he toiled. Shola Ameobi? He continued his run of goals for Newcastle but otherwise struggled to punch his weight. Joey Barton? For a man drawn to the flame, this was an unusually subdued afternoon. And while Michael Owen came off the bench for Newcastle, Capello will deem him too rusty for Berlin.

That leaves only Johnson, who scored the opening goal and won the penalty that allowed Danny Murphy to lift Fulham from eighteenth in the Premier League to tenth — a jump that offers Newcastle solace as they are back in the relegation zone.

“Every week we are told either to prepare for Europe or relegation,” Roy Hodgson, the Fulham manager, said of a league in which only three points separate 11 teams. Those rapidly changing perspectives were, he argued, taking a toll on his players’ confidence and were the reason why Fulham could look so good in the first half-hour and then wobble so badly.

They took a deserved lead when the hapless Caçapa, playing at centre back only because Steven Taylor was a late withdrawal, directed a routine defensive header straight into the back of Fabricio Coloccini, his teammate, in the 23rd minute. The ball fell to Johnson, who lashed it in for his third goal in as many matches.

“If I was an international manager I’d make a note to myself, ‘that’s interesting,’ ” Hodgson said. “But if Andy wants to force his way in with Fabio, he’s going to have to do in the next few games what he’s done in the last two.” The goal stirred Newcastle, who threatened through Obafemi Martins and Damien Duff and were on top when Ameobi scored a scrappy goal, poking the ball home at the far post.

Newcastle were pressing for the winner when a pass from Clint Dempsey, who had come off the bench to add forward thrust for Fulham, resulted in Johnson and Caçapa tussling for the ball, the forward’s arms momentarily raised. Replays showed a little push but — Kinnear should note — no one in the press box had noticed it.

With Caçapa wrong-footed, Johnson skipped into the box and, as a man with a knack for drawing fouls in the area, he must have known that Coloccini was arriving at speed. The defender duly caught Johnson’s foot and the contact sent him flying. Murphy dispatched the penalty coolly. “I’m just really sick we didn’t get something,” Kinnear said. He made that perfectly clear.

Fulham (4-4-2): M Schwarzer 6 - J Paintsil 6, B Hangeland 6, A Hughes 6, P Konchesky 6 - S Davies 6, J Bullard 6, D Murphy 7, Z Gera 6 - A Johnson 7, R Zamora 6. Substitutes: C Dempsey 7 (for Gera, 64min), E Nevland (for Zamora, 74), C Baird (for Murphy, 89). Not used: P Züberbuhler, J Gray, F Stoor, L Andreasen. Next: Tottenham (h).

Newcastle United (4-4-2): S Given 6 - H Beye 5, F Coloccini 6, C Caçapa 4, J Enrique 5 - J Gutiérrez 5, N Butt 5, J Barton 5, D Duff 6 - O Martins 6, F Ameobi 5. Substitute: M Owen 5 (for Gutiérrez, 70). Not used: S Harper, D Guthrie, S Bassong, C N’Zogbia, Gérémi, A Carroll. Next: Wigan (h).

Referee: M Atkinson. Attendance: 24,740.