To fully appreciate the early years of Newcastle's Lewis Miley, consider that he was just 13 during the first Covid-19 lockdown.
Today he is the cure for his boyhood club's injury epidemic. He is now also their youngest-ever Premier League scorer.
In becoming so, he changed the narrative of an afternoon that threatened to turn negative for Eddie Howe's side.
They needed a win here after the disappointment of their European exit in midweek, but after picking up two more injuries before half-time, the insult would have been their failure to beat ten-man Fulham, who signed Raul Jimenez had been sent off in the first half.
The visitors were just beginning to lock the door when Bruno Guimaraes burst through and Miley smashed his first senior goal into the bottom corner from eight yards.
Lewis Miley, 17, scored his first senior goal against Fulham at St James' Park on Saturday
Newcastle enjoyed the 3-0 victory after Fulham were down to ten men in the first half
Referee Samuel Barrott checks Fulham's Raul Jimenez off the pitch after a collision with Dan Burn
Emil Krafth (L) and Sven Botman of Newcastle United celebrate after the team's victory
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The 17-year-old replaced James Milner as Newcastle's youngest Premier League marksman and given what we've seen from Miley in recent months, he could have an equally decorated career.
Miguel Almiron and Dan Burn scored more goals before half-time to clarify a scoreline that seemed unlikely before Miley's intervention.
But while Newcastle's injuries were unfortunate, Miley's emergence was a blessing. You could call him a star in the making, but the kid looks ready-made.
His introduction for the injured Joelinton helped inject energy into a team down to ten men. To think: Howe had been rested after seven consecutive starts. All he needed was 36 minutes on the bench.
But amid the joy of Miley's impact and a win that takes Newcastle back into the top six, Howe is counting the cost of three further injuries.
Newcastle will play Sunderland in the FA Cup in early January. However, they are already sick from black cats. Yet another crossed their path when Fabian Schar retired after 14 minutes with a hamstring strain.
He went to the line outside the treatment room. Meanwhile, the black cat waited at the side of the field.
The loss of Schar meant four of Newcastle's usual five were now absent. The makeshift backline's afternoon was made a lot easier in theory when Jimenez was sent off in the 20th minute.
Newcastle enjoyed goals from Lewis Miley, Miguel Almiron and Dan Burn to cruise to victory
Lewis Miley became Newcastle's youngest ever Premier League goalscorer
His rear end in the air collided with Sean Longstaff's face and following a VAR review a yellow card was upgraded to red.
However, Fulham showed an improvement for 10 men. Yes, they survived the scare when Anthony Gordon cracked the crossbar and the ball rebounded through Longstaff's legs into the goalmouth, but it seemed equally likely that they would take the lead before half-time.
Their best chance came from Joelinton, who split his own defense with a stray pass and Alex Iwobi ran clear.
However, he wanted to think too long and when Dan Burn recovered to apply pressure, Iwobi's low shot was comfortably saved by Martin Dubravka.
That black cat was soon chasing Joelinton and his hamstring popped in the 36th minute. With Alexander Isak also missing due to a recurring groin problem, the injured list had expanded to double digits less than 24 hours after he finally entered single digits.
Is it all due to bad luck? Certainly not, and if questions about diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation and individual workload weren't already being asked, they should be, especially when so many of the problems are the aggravation of old or existing injuries.
One of those making his first start in more than a month, Longstaff, had an opening on the stroke of half-time, but goalkeeper Bernd Leno did well to attack and block the midfielder's jab from close range.
The keeper made further stops from Gordon and Miley before the latter found the breakthrough in the 57th minute. Almiron then converted from close range on 64 minutes and Burn turned in after Leno saved his initial header.
Man-of-the-match Guimaraes provided the cross for Burn and the Brazilian was superb in the second half.
However, there was no doubt about who was the favorite of the home crowd. Lewis Miley is one of them.
