1 year ago
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It came from a free-kick on the right, 40 yards or so from goal. Trippier curled a superb ball towards the penalty spot, where Isak eased Jonny out of the way with a gentle push in the back and then flicked a marvellous header into the far corner.
Wolves will probably feel Jonny was fouled; the referee and VAR disagree. I don’t think it was a foul, and it certainly wasn’t a clear and obvious error.
GOAL! Newcastle 1-0 Wolves (Isak 26)
Newcastle score a goal, and a fine one at that.
25 min “The picture of the ‘vast expanse of St James’ Park’ sent me down a rabbit hole of stadium sizes,” says Joe Pearson. “Depending on allocation strategies, it appears more Bournemouth fans could attend a match at Old Trafford (capacity 75,000) than they could at home at Dean Court (capacity 11,000). Is this a topic for the Knowledge?”
It’s not a rabbit hole that fills me with joy, I must say, but I’m a weirdo so you might as well go for it.
24 min And after all that, play resumes with the score 0-0.
22 min Just before that Pope incident, Burn won a tackle with Neves and then followed through onto his ankle. Burn gave Neves a mouthful, which is out of order, and not the first time he’s gratuitously played the tough guy this season.
21 min I think Pope is lucky, though I don’t think it will be overturned by VAR because it probably doesn’t count as a clear and obvious error. There was contact, but you can certainly argue that the contact wasn’t sufficient to knock Jimenez over. Personally I think it was a penalty.
20 min Nick Pope had almost had another shocker! He received a backpass from Botman, took an awful touch on the left edge of the area and was robbed by Jimenez. He lifted the ball past Pope and went over, but the referee decided it wasn’t a foul by Pope. Hmm.
18 min I have a horrible feeling this isn’t going to end 4-4.
17 min Newcastle are passing the ball with a fair bit of confidence, but their tempo is a bit slow and they could probably take more risks in the final third.
15 min Trippier’s inswinging corner is headed away. Saint-Maximin loops it back into the box, and Isak flicks a header straight at Sa. It wasn’t much of a chance, about 0.04 on the old xG I’d say.
14 min It’s been a reasonable start to the match, no more or less. Newcastle are having most of the ball, and Burn has just won another corner after some good interplay on the left.
12 min Traore plays a terrific pass inside Burn towards Semedo in the area. Semedo is slightly indecisive, and that allows Burn to come back and make an important tackle. The ball ricochets off Semedo and being for a goalkick.
11 min Trippier smashes his free-kick straight into the wall. That wasn’t a great effort; he just leathered it into the pack.
10 min Schar sprays a good pass out to Saint-Maximin on the left. He slides the ball back towards the D, where Bruno Guimaraes neatly turns Moutinho and is tripped. This is a chance for Kieran Trippier…
8 min Newcastle take the corner short, and soon regret it.
7 min After good play from Newcastle on the right, Longstaff’s excellent cross is headed behind by Nelson Semedo.
6 min Kilman is robbed just outside the area on the Wolves right by Isak, but he recovers to concede a throw-in.
5 min “Good morning Rob!” writes Chris Paraskevas. “It’s about time my early rises (3:30 am here in Sydney) were rewarded with a Newcastle win. Wolves are always tricky opponents though. I remember encountering their fans in an (impossibly cramped) London bar many years ago, on the way to watch a Millwall game.
“The (impossibly large) leader of the Wolves contingent almost squared off with his Millwall equivalent and their group. Calmer heads prevailed: ‘We’ve got the kids with us, otherwise it’d be all on.’ (Paraphrasing) Gotta love away days... Howay The Lads!”
5 min Moutinho’s free-kick is punched away by Pope.
4 min Traore moseys over to the left wing and is fouled by Trippier. I say ‘fouled’; Trippier was insistent he won the ball cleanly. Either way, Wolves have a free-kick in a decent position…
2 min Murphy’s cross is dropped by Sa, who jumps onto the back of his own teammate Dawson, but he has time to claim it at the second attempt.
1 min Peep peep! Alexander Isak gets the game under way for Newcastle, who are kicking from left to right as we watch.
Here come the players. Blip or no blip, there’s a pretty good atmosphere at St James’ Park. Whatever happens from hereon in, this has already been Newcastle’s best season in about 20 years.
Match report: West Ham 1-1 Aston Villa
“With both these sides chronically short of goals, my (virtual) money is on a draw,” says Roy Everitt. “So how about 4-4?”
Sack it, let’s go the full QPR.
Match report: Man Utd 0-0 Southampton
On this day in 1994… goals were not a problem for Newcastle.
On this day in 1996…
Never forget where you’ve come here from.
Musical interlude
Match report: Fulham 0-3 Arsenal
All we are saying is…
“Teams are reaching their level of incompetence (or competence)...” says Jeff Sax. “Newcastle are not in a slump, this is their level....and they may not even win today. MU just drew against Southampton!!! Fulham, despite doing well, lost.”
Man Utd did have ten men for an hour, to be fair. I agree that Newcastle have overachieved for most of the season, but I also think they’re better than their recent form would suggest. All teams have blips.
Premier League results (2pm kick-offs)
Fulham 0-3 Arsenal
Man Utd 0-0 Southampton
West Ham 1-1 Aston Villa
I suppose that’s good news for both these teams. Newcastle could yet catch Manchester United, while Wolves will be happy when any team below them doesn’t win.
This is what it does to the league table.
Eddie Howe has picked a whole new forward line. Allan Saint-Maximin, Alexander Isak and Jacob Murphy replace Miguel Almiron, Callum Wilson and Anthony Gordon. There are two other changes from the defeat at Manchester City last week – the fit again Joe Willock and Fabian Schar come in for Joelinton, who is suspended, and Jamaal Lascelles.
Wolves make four changes from the win over Spurs last weekend, all in attacking positions. Joao Moutinho, Daniel Podence, Adama Traore (who came off the bench to score the winner last weekend) and Raul Jimenez come in for Matheus Nunes, Pedro Neto, Pablo Sarabia and Diego Costa. It looks like Sarabia and Costa are injured.
Team news
Newcastle (4-3-3) Pope; Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn; Longstaff, Bruno, Willock; Murphy, Isak, Saint-Maximin.
Substitutes: Dubravka, Dummett, Lascelles, Targett, Manquillio, Ritchie, Almiron, Anderson, Wilson.
Wolves (4-2-3-1) Sa; Semedo, Dawson, Kilman, Jonny; Neves, Lemina; Traore, Moutinho, Podence; Jimenez.
Substitutes: Bentley, Ait-Nouri, Collins, Toti, Nunes, Joao Gomes, Neto, Hwang, Cunha.
Referee Andy Madley.
Preamble
If first is first and second is nothing, is it any wonder nobody seems to fancy finishing fourth? The race for the final Champions League place is becoming a leaden-footed struggle, with Spurs, Liverpool and Newcastle all recently losing points in surprising circumstances.
Newcastle’s slump has been the most striking. Maybe striking isn’t quite the right word, as they’ve scored only three goals in the last eight Premier League games. In that time they’ve picked up only eight points, dropping from third to sixth as a result.
The good news is that, if they can clamber back on the horse sooner rather than later, a Champions League place is still within reach. Newcastle are seven points behind fourth-placed Spurs with three games in hand and a decent run of fixtures coming up.
That said, Wolves at home isn’t the home banker it might have been earlier in the season. They’ve won five of their 11 league games under Julen Lopetegui, inching their way up to 13th in the Spandex Relegation Stakes. It should be an intriguing game, but don’t expect too many goals. No Premier League team has scored fewer goals than Newcastle in 2023; no side has scored than fewer than Wolves this season.
Kick off 4.30pm
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