As the only team without a point this season Wolves were faced with a tough away trip to St. James Park and Newcastle United. Two sides happy to see the back of the transfer window and hoping to kick on with squads set at least until January.
Jeff Shi and Fosun entered the club looking to make history, well today they did. This Wolves side is the first team in the clubs history to lose the opening four games of a league season. A shambles all around!
The Line Ups:
Wolves (3-5-2): Johnstone, R.Gomes, Mosquera, Agbadou, Toti, H.Bueno, Krejci, Andre, J.Gomes, Hwang, Arokodare.
Newcastle (4-3-3): Pope. Trippier, Schar, Burn, Livramento, Bruno G, Tonali, Joelinton, J. Murphy, Barnes, Woltemade
The First Half
Wolves opened the half very brightly, immediately from Kick off Rodrigo Gomes forced Nick Pope into a great stop after Wolves took advantage of Tolu Arokodare’s presence as he flicked on a ball from the keeper into Gomes’ path. Immediately following this were a sequence of corners for the visitors but no chances were created.
Only four minutes into the game did Newcastle’s first chance show, with Murphy finding space and having a good shot just wide, immediately back up the other end and the ball fell to Rodrigo Gomes again after Arokodare making himself known for the left wing back to fire wide at the near post.
In the 12th minute after both sides seeing chances missed, Murphy really should have put the hosts ahead with a shot from less than five yards straight at Johnstone after a long throw from Livramento bounced through the crowd to the dangerous winger.
Wolves kept pushing forward and another opportunity presented itself, as Hwang got behind the Newcastle defence and put the ball across goal for Schar on the stretch to cut it out from what would’ve been a tap in for Arokodare, another corner for Wolves leading to nothing.
Newcastle started to dominate possession and opened the scoring with a good header from their new striker Woltemade a perfect cross floated into the back post by Murphy, the German beating Mosquera and powering home a header into the top corner. After the goal Newcastle continued to dominate the ball without creating many opportunities, Wolves seemed to lose all confidence and were second to the ball far too often from the goal until the half time whistle.
That being said, Wolves did manufacture one more chance before the break as Bueno put in a great cross, after Krejci did great work down the right hand side only for the chance to be headed wide by Rodrigo Gomes.
Newcastle thought they had doubled the lead when Murphy fired in from close range after a pullback from Barnes, only for the goal to be disallowed by the on field team as Barnes made his run behind Mosquera slightly early and was offside.
In the fourth minute of added time Tonali from the edge of the box hit a beautiful strike that hit off the bottom of the post. Johnstone was rooted to the spot, very close to being Newcastle’s second of the game, the half time whistle was blown 1-0 to Newcastle.
The Second Half
Newcastle started the half piling the pressure on, with Wolves unable to get out their own half. The hosts were unable to create a clear cut opportunity. The first opportunity almost fell to Barnes after the ball was played in by Murphy but Johnstone managed to get to the ball first, the opening of the half was very flat from the visitors seemingly happy to let Newcastle control the possession.
Nothing continued to happen and a flurry of changes for both Wolves and the hosts with Woltemade and Joelinton being withdrawn and Osula and Willock entering the field for the hosts, meanwhile for the visitors Andre, Arokodare and Mosquera were withdrawn and Bellegarde, Arias and Munetsi replacing them.
The changes didn’t offer much inspiration for either side as a drab half continued, a half chance for Newcaslte after Agbadou played a shocking pass into no man’s land, Necastle broke and Barnes fired over the bar.
More changes as the game entered the last fifteen minutes with Rodrigo Gomes and Hwang withdrawn, replacing them Fer Lopez and Tchatchoua.
These changes saw Wolves push up the pitch without creating any chances, the game continued in a stop start nature with more subs this time for Newcastle as Barnes was withdrawn for Elanga.
As six minutes was shown by the officials for added time, Wolves started to show some bright sparks with Bellegarde drawing in a free kick which he fired into the wall and behind. Wolves kept pushing with the best opportunity coming via a pass from Joao Gomes into Lopez who played through Arias who saw his cutback intercepted.
Any positives that could be taken from the opening half can be forgotten after the drab second half against a Newcastle side who switched off for the last twenty minutes and Wolves still couldn’t find a way back into the game. As a final word, at least we didn’t concede two?
Wolves Make Unwanted History: Four Straight Losses After 1-0 Defeat at Newcastle