Welcome to the Wolves v Newcastle preview.
Sunday 18th January and a 2pm -kick-off.
Newcastle United turn their attention to the league this weekend after domestic cup matches against Bournemouth and Man City this past week.
A trip to Molineux to face bottom of the table Wolves may seem the perfect opportunity to rack up another three points.
However, Sunday’s opponents are unbeaten in the last three matches and will be looking for further points in their mission to avoid relegation.
Form
The last six league games have seen the Toon win three, draw one and lose two, but the three wins have all come in the last three matches. A 3-1 victory away at Burnley was followed up with home victories over Crystal Palace and Leeds. We’ve also drawn with Chelsea despite being 2-0 up and lost to both the Mackems and Man Utd. We’ve scored eleven goals in these matches and conceded eight. The ten points gained has us ninth in the league after the Saturday afternoon matches and a win could see us in the top five on goal difference.
Wolves have won one, drawn two and lost three of their last six matches. Their win came against West Ham and they’ve drawn away with Everton and Man Utd. They lost to Liverpool, Brentford and Arsenal. They’ve scored seven goals and conceded eight. The five points achieved has them still bottom of the league, already fourteen points adrift of safety.
Last time out
Newcastle hosted Man City in the first leg of the League Cup semi-final and almost made a dream start when Wissa was played through after just three minutes. Unfortunately, our number nine opted to take a touch rather than putting his foot through the ball and ended up skying his effort. The Toon remained confident and had chances to take the lead at the start of the second half when Wissa’s header was clawed off the line by the Man City ‘keeper and Bruno’s follow up hit the foot of the post. Just when it was looking like United would score the crucial first goal of the tie, Man City went down the other end and swept home the opener before having another disallowed soon after. Newcastle tried in vain for an equaliser but were caught on the break in injury time to make it a huge ask to reach the final for the third time in four seasons.
Wolves had a day to remember in the FA Cup last weekend when they hosted league two Shrewsbury. Two goals inside the opening eleven minutes had them firmly in control and, despite conceding a penalty, they went into the half-time break 3-1 up. A comfortable second half saw further scoring for Wolves who eventually ran out 6-1 winners.
Stat attack!
-Newcastle have lost only one Premier League match away at Wolves.
– The Toon have never failed to find the net away at Wolves in the Premier League.
-NUFC have drawn seven Premier League matches away at Wolves and six of them have been 1-1.
Memorable match
In 2011, Alan Pardew’s Newcastle travelled to Wolves, having enjoyed three wins and three draws from their first six league matches. New signing Demba Ba had opened his account the previous match with a hat-trick in a 3-1 win over Blackburn Rovers and it took him just seventeen minutes to add to his tally with a bullet header from a corner to send the away fans wild. Things were to get even better for the travelling Toon Army before half-time when Gutierrez slalomed through three defenders and buried an effort into the bottom corner, so 2-0 at half-time and job done then? Any seasoned watcher of the Toon knows things are never that simple. A relatively comfortable second half exploded into life in the final five minutes when Wolves pulled one back, hit the post, had a goal disallowed and saw strong penalty appeals turned down in an absolutely hectic finish to the match, that saw United very fortunate to escape with all three points. Wolves 1-2 Newcastle.
Played for both
Darren Peacock was signed for NUFC by Kevin Keegan in 1994 and soon became an integral part of the entertainers era. He played over one hundred games for the Toon and was never afraid of doing the hard graft whilst more illustrious colleagues bombed forward. He’s fondly remembered for opening the scoring with a header in our famous 5-0 win over Man United in 1996. He’s still active as a speaker taking part in various talk-ins and is always very pro-NUFC when discussing his time on Tyneside
He played four times for Wolves during a spell on loan from Blackburn in 2000 but unfortunately suffered a spine injury against Fulham that saw him extremely lucky not to end up paralysed and led to his retirement.
Sebastien Bassong spent just one season at NUFC, our disastrous relegation campaign of 08/09. He was voted player of the season and never has the phrase ‘Damning with faint praise’ been more appropriate, he didn’t have a lot of competition for that award! Costly red cards against Wigan and Fulham in narrow defeats weren’t exactly ideal and his immediate desire to leave following relegation hardly ingratiated himself to Toon fans. He signed for Spurs before a loan spell at Wolves as his career began to nosedive. When we finished fifth in the league, he was in the side at the very bottom of the table. Needless to say, sympathy on Tyneside was in very short supply.
Mike Williamson signed for NUFC in 2009. Despite not being the most glamorous of signings, he soon won fans over with a number of committed performances. He spent six years on Tyneside and was named player of the season (under rather happier circumstances than Bassong) in 13/14. Toon fans even had a chant urging the England manager to take him to that Summer’s World Cup. He scored just the one league goal for the Toon and must have thought he’d won the match when putting us 3-2 up against Crystal Palace in the final minute but was cruelly robbed of his moment of glory due to a ninety-fifth minute equaliser. He briefly played for Wolves after NUFC, making just a handful of loan appearances before a permanent move was also hampered by persistent injuries. He remained popular on Tyneside after his departure and returned to the region two years later to play for and then manage Gateshead.
Managers
Eddie Howe after a 2-0 defeat at home to Man City:
“We’re still alive, still in there fighting. We won by this scoreline at Arsenal last year and felt the tie was still very much alive. If we can get the next goal we’re still very much in it. All I can look at is the effort levels of the players, and I think considering Saturday’s efforts that we gave against Bournemouth, that was a great effort from the guys against the worst side that could expose that fatigue. It’s a body blow but not fatal at the moment. We’re still in there fighting. I think maybe a bit of naivety with a minute to go on the clock, that we’re still trying to chase a goal. In that moment, we needed to defend after we got our structure wrong from that position, and we got punished.I think the lads gave everything today under difficult circumstances after the extra time on Saturday There was a bit of fatigue in our performance, but I can’t fault the players”
Rob Edwards after a 6-1 FA Cup win over Shrewsbury:
“It was a good performance. Very professional but a lot of good quality as well. I thought as a team we looked good but there was a lot of good performances a well. A really good day all round. Nice for the supporters to see and celebrate some goals. What could have been a really tricky day turned out to be a very enjoyable one.”
Charity
As it is an away match, Newcastle United fans will not be collecting opposite the Gallowgate end, for the food bank. However, you can still help out and all online cash donations are very much appreciated. For further info and/or to donate to the food bank online.
Prediction
Newcastle have had a hectic schedule recently and Wolves have experienced an improvement in recent results. As such, I think this will be a much closer match than the league table suggests. Nevertheless, I’ve been impressed with the Toon recently and fancy another win as we look to add some consistency to our league form. Wolves 1-2 Newcastle.