What Dan Burn did during Fulham defeat sums up Newcastle players’ attitude on final day

Newcastle United turned up to play Fulham on Sunday in body only. They were physically on the pitch, but that was as good as it got.

Eddie Howe used all five of his substitutes through the game, and not a single one of them made a blind bit of difference to proceedings.

Sean Neave made his Premier League debut for the club and would no doubt have loved to have been involved in something meaningful to mark the occasion, but the 10 players around him couldn't have given less of a chuff if they tried, and so the poor lad was left to float around the field, much like Nick Woltemade has had to do all season.

If every player did a 40-minute TED Talk on what they feel they did during the game against Fulham, not a single one could convince me they had put anything beyond the bare minimum effort in.

Dan Burn's mind was elsewhere

The Athletic's George Caulkin spotted something that Dan Burn did during a drinks break that has some fans absolutely raging, and rightly so.

A post from Caulkin, posted during the live updates on The Athletic, was reposted by their official X account, which said that Burn was heard asking about the West Ham score during his own game. Caulkin tried to frame it in a joking way, but that's not how fans see it.

“I kid you not, Dan Burn has just come over to the Johnny Haynes stand (during a drinks break) and asked Fulham fans ‘what’s the West Ham score?’ Even he knows the story is happening elsewhere today.”

It didn't go down well with fans

Replies to The Athletic's post ranged from 'focus on the game' to more unsavoury comments aimed towards Dan Burn.

The last thing we want to do is turn on Dan Burn after all he's given to the cause, but howay man, lead by example. 

Burn is a prominent figure on the leadership team, is a Geordie born and bred, and he's out there playing for the shirt but seems more bothered about results elsewhere. 

What has happened to us this season?