And with that, I’m off. Here’s the match report again. Bye!
Steve Bruce: "A point’s a point, who knows what it is?"
Steve Bruce can’t give us any real update on Newcastle’s various injuries, except that “for Almiron to come off and be in the state he’s in, we fear the worst”. Meanwhile, there’s also this:
The first half an hour I thought we were excellent, and we have created big opportunities, and at this level you have to take them. We’re disappointed with that, and of course injuries have again disrupted us badly. That little bit of calm, to stick it in the net ... we’ve had enough chances, big chances, especially in the first half, and unfortunately we didn’t take them. When you look at the goal, we should stop the cross, and when the goalkeeper looks at it he’ll think, ‘Could I have done better?’ It was a frustration for all of us. A point’s a point, who knows what it is? A point could be enough, but we’ll have to wait and see. The players are frustrated because they’ve played very well, and we’ve given a poor goal away. They’ve got a right to be frustrated but there’s positives we can take out of it.
Louise Taylor’s match report is live!
Rúben Neves scored his first headed goal for Wolves, Miguel Almirón and Allan Saint-Maximin limped off far too early and Joelinton was involved in yet another costly miss. All in all, it was not Newcastle’s night.
Steve Bruce’s side played well but they have won only two of their last 17 games and remain in the thick of an unwanted relegation skirmish which could yet prompt a changing of the managerial guard at St James’ Park.
Much more here:
I’m disappointed, the way we conceded, second phase after a set piece, something we have to look at. Honestly I felt we won the game, we started the second half well. The first half Newcastle started really well but after the team settled down. The way we conceded was disappointing, but the reaction of the boys was amazing, the way they kept playing and achieved a very good goal. After we settled down and started playing I think we unbalanced Newcastle, finded spaces, Adama did an amazing job, and we had many situations that required better finishing. But we’ll keep on working.
Updated
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57% of Premier League goals today were scored by centre-backs.
— Richard Jolly (@RichJolly) February 27, 2021
Jamal Lascelles is mildly disgruntled:
I definitely feel like we deserved more. I thought we were the better team out there. We had a lot of chances and we really need to do better in front of goal. We had chances you dream of having, and we didn’t put them away. We know the situation we’re in. You can see by the way we played today how much the game meant to us. You can see by our attitude how hungry we are. The positive thing is we’re all on the same page, we’re all pushing and fighting, we’ve all got the same attitude and with that, performances and results will come.
Final score: Newcastle 1-1 Wolves
90+6 mins: And that’s it! Like the teams’ first meeting this season, and both meetings last season, and the second one of the 2018-19 campaign, it finishes 1-1!
90+4 mins: The ball hit Dubravka on the shoulder. I do think there was a bit of shoulder-to-ball movement, though, so I call it a save rather than sheer luck.
90+2 mins: WHAT A MISS/SAVE COMBO! Neto cross from the left and it drops to Fabio Silva, four yards from goal, whose header hits Dubravka and deflects onto the bar and then clear! How that didn’t end up in the net I do now know.
Updated
90+1 mins: A lovely cross from Saiss on the left, but Clark gets his head to it just ahead of Fabio Silva.
90+1 mins: The ball runs to Jonny on the edge of the area, and his curling shot doesn’t curl enough. And with that we roll into stoppage time, of which there’ll be something in the region of five minutes.
87 mins: Shelvey’s shot deflects wide, and Coady heads the corner clear a moment before Rui Patricio comes out and punches him in the head. The referee stops the game immediately, but Coady is fine.
85 mins: And another probably-injury-enforced substitution, Ki-Jana Hoever replacing Semedo.
83 mins: Fabio Silva comes on for Willian Jose. Still anyone’s game.
81 mins: Ridiculous goalline clearance-cum-miss from Newcastle. Murphy gets into the area on the right, cuts inside, and despite now being in an excellent position he doesn’t shoot and passes instead to Joelinton, whose effort beats Rui Patricio but not Romain Saiss, who does well both to get something in the way and to make sure that thing wasn’t his arm, and the ball deflects over the bar!
Updated
78 mins: That was Ruben Neves’ first headed goal for Wolves, and very well directed it was too. For all that, I’m certain Dubravka will be disappointed not to have pushed it away, given how close he came to doing so and how desperate he must be to reward his manager’s decision to put him back in the team.
GOAL! Newcastle 1-1 Wolves (Neves, 74 mins)
Neto crosses from the right, Willian Jose drags the defence’s attention to the near post and the ball goes over him to Ruben Neves, who heads it just inside the post, off Dubravka’s palm!
Updated
72 mins: Joelinton does very well to control Shelvey’s overhit pass and after one bounce fire in a left-footed half-volley, but to add accuracy to that was a tough ask, and it’s straight at Rui Patricio.
72 mins: Newcastle bring Matt Ritchie on for Krafth.
70 mins: Neto’s cross from the right is frustratingly too high for Jonny yet not high enough for Traore, bouncing before it reaches him which complicates his task. Wolves are pushing forwards with some intent, but still aren’t quite convincing in attack.
68 mins: Moutinho is limping now, but appears not to require madical assistance and indeed already seems to have run off whatever his issue was.
65 mins: Wolves work space for Semedo on the right side of the penalty area, but his cross is poor and Newcastle have a throw-in on the other side. Then they work the ball around midfield, before Neves overhits another pass to Semedo and Newcastle have a goal kick.
63 mins: Saint-Maximin has limped gingerly from the field, and Jacob Murphy has replaced him.
61 mins: Willock and Saint-Maximin are both down and requiring physio assistance. The former is quickly back on his feet, the latter is not, and seems to have an issue with his right thigh/groin/hamstring.
Updated
59 mins: Neto hammers a poor shot wide from 22 yards or so. Wolves have done some enterprising attacking but haven’t had much by way of clear chances.
55 mins: Another training-ground set-piece from Newcastle, Fraser from the right fooling the defence into believing a cross is coming before instead sliding a pass to Shelvey, who shanks his shot high and wide from the edge of the area.
GOAL! Newcastle 1-0 Wolves (Lascelles, 52 mins)
The breakthrough! Saint-Maximin dances around on the left for a while, and though his cross is headed clear the ball runs to Fraser, whose centre finds Lascelles running clear in the area to guide a header inside the near post!
Updated
50 mins: Traore passes to Neves, who has a very poor shot from 25 yards.
48 mins: Wolves kicked off the second half and have pretty much had the ball since.
46 mins: Peeeeep! The game has been restarted! Yes it has!
The players are on their way back out, and Miguel Almiron isn’t one of them. Perhaps because of the knee issue he got some treatment for in the first half, Ryan Fraser is coming on to replace him.
A pretty good half, as goalless halves go. Two teams with a pretty similar array of strengths and weaknesses, and most promisingly with wide forwards who like running with the ball and defenders who go wobble-kneed when someone runs at them.
Half time: Newcastle 0-0 Wolves
45+3 mins: Newcastle bossed the opening half-hour, Wolves threatened more in the last 10 minutes or so, and there’s been plenty of positive play from both sides, but it’s goalless at the break.
45_1 mins: We’re into stoppage time, of which there’ll be a couple of minutes. They start with Neto sending in a low cross from the right which runs across the face of goal and out the other side.
44 mins: Neves runs over the free-kick, Moutinho backheels it, and Neto sends a 25-yard left-footer into the arms of Dubravka.
43 mins: Now Traore cuts infield, where a panicked Clark brings him down and gives Mike Dean the easiest booking decision he’ll ever make.
41 mins: Traore is having all sorts of fun on the left now. He ghosts past Willock’s laughable attempt to stop him and chips beyond the far post, where Neto attempts an unlikely volley, miskicks it horribly, and misses the target by a distance.
Updated
38 mins: Ruben Neves heads the ball into Clark’s oustretched hand, leading to penalty claims and a VAR check, but it’s not a penalty because don’t be so silly.
35 mins: Traore sprints down the left, makes Krafth look like he’s wading through cream of mushroom soup, and pulls back to Neto, who sidefoots wide from the edge of the area.
34 mins: “A few years back I read a story about a cat who lived in a care centre for seniors,” writes Mary Waltz. “The cat had a sixth sense when a patient was going to pass away and the cat would spend time with the patient shortly before they died. I think that cat is visiting Newcastle.” Perhaps that’s why they seem to be purring tonight.
31 mins: Now Wolves hit the post! Neves clips a first-time cross to Traore, whose header is pushed onto the post by Dubravka, bounces back out, hits Dubravka again and rolls behind for a corner.
29 mins: Miguel Almiron slides in to dispossess Traore, goes down clutching his right knee, and Newcastle’s physio is back on.
26 mins: Saint-Maximin, who really hadn’t done much before setting up that Willock chance, goes on another lovely run, absolutely humiliating Joao Moutinho with a drop of the shoulder, but his shot from 18 yards is rubbish.
26 mins: Newcastle have completely dominated, have made two or three half-chances and one full-fat one, but still no goal.
24 mins: Now it’s in the net, but Saint-Maximin is offside! It’s a lovely run from Saint-Maximin, dancing into the area, past four players, and then squaring to Willock. He really should score but instead shot too close to Rui Patricio, who pushes the ball back out to Saint-Maximin, who tucks it into the empty net but is two yards offside!
Updated
22 mins: Now JoeLinton has a shot, this time from just inside the penalty area, and again Rui Patricio keeps it out. Really he should have caught it, but instead beats it away. Either way, it’s not in his net.
21 mins: Emil Krafth thumps in a low, hard shot from about 30 yards, which Rui Patricio saves.
19 mins: The good news is that Hayden has recovered and rejoined the fray. The bad news is that he’s just been booked for fouling Adama Traore.
17 mins: The physios are on and looking at Hayden’s ankle, which just had a bit of Neves boot land on it.
15 mins: Almiron chips the ball from the left to the far post, where Rui Patricio jumps against Joelinton and unconvincingly flaps clearish.
12 mins: Newcastle hit the post! Shelvey’s first-time pass over the defence releases Almiron down the right, and he cuts in, waits for the keeper to come out, and curls the ball left-footed past him but into the woodwork!
Updated
11 mins: Newcastle have started brightly, and they work the ball down the right, cross hopefully and unsuccessfully, win it back again and work it down the left, but this time Nelson Semedo wins it off them. Wolves had their penalty area pretty much under control throughout.
7 mins: Pedro Neto surges down the right, gets past Jamal Lewis, then takes on Ciaran Clark for pace and loses.
5 mins: Now they win a free-kick on the right, from which they deliver 80% of a training-ground routine, playing it back, chipping it in, and Hayden wins the header but sends it straight at Rui Patricio. They’re very much heading in the right direction, even if Hayden was not.
2 mins: Newcastle win an early free-kick from the left, from which they deliver two-thirds of a training-ground routine - back to Shelvey, chipped into the box for Lascelles - but not anyone for him to head it on to, and Wolves clear.
1 min: Peeeeeep! They’re off!
Updated
Out come the players! Newcastle know that defeat could see them end the weekend in the bottom three, Wolves know that winning would be, um, better than not winning. Let’s go!
Steve Bruce on his goalkeeping switch:
Well listen, in management sometimes you have to make a decision which is sometimes cruel. He’s done so well, Karl, but I think the influence of Martin and his experience, and results haven’t been great for us ... I can’t stress how good Karl has done for us, he’s done nothing really wrong, but I think the change can maybe help us.
Steve Bruce has cleverly coached his players to form the shape of the number of points they expect to get from tonight’s game during their pre-match warm-up.
Newcastle make one change and it’s in nets, where Martin Dubravka makes his first league start since the last day of last season. Wolves are are unchanged.
The teams!
Team news is in and tonight’s cast list looks like this:
Newcastle: Dubravka, Krafth, Lascelles, Clark, Lewis, Willock, Hayden, Shelvey, Almiron, Joelinton, Saint-Maximin. Subs: Dummett, Carroll, Ritchie, Gayle, Hendrick, Fraser, Murphy, Darlow, Sean Longstaff.
Wolverhampton: Rui Patricio, Dendoncker, Coady, Saiss, Nelson Semedo, Neves, Joao Moutinho, Jonny, Pedro Neto, Traore, Willian Jose. Subs: Hoever, Ait Nouri, Silva, Gibbs-White, Vitinha, Ruddy, Kilman, Otasowie.
Referee: Mike Dean.
🚨 𝙏𝙀𝘼𝙈-𝙉𝙀𝙒𝙎 🚨
— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) February 27, 2021
HWTL! ⚫️⚪️
Here's how Wolves line-up for tonight's @premierleague fixture against @NUFC. #NEWWOL
— Wolves (@Wolves) February 27, 2021
🐺📋 pic.twitter.com/6JqCc8TbLg
Hello world!
Wolves may have won their last two games - “We are playing good, we’re trying to improve our game. This is what it’s all about,” says Nuno Espirito Santo - but their form isn’t exactly terrifying. It’s still twice as good as Newcastle’s, who can boast of two wins in their last 14 outings and in their last 10 have won six points, precisely half as many as today’s opponents (third bottom in that form table, above only Newcastle and Southampton, is Liverpool).
“I always say when the daffodils are up, that’s a sign that the real crux part of the season is upon us,” said Steve Bruce ahead of this one. “There are six or seven [teams fighting relegation]. Can we finish above the six or seven? That’s the aim and I’m quietly confident we can do that. We’re not alone, I must stress this. It just seems as though Newcastle are the only one in it - we are not alone. There are six or seven teams all in and around us who are still nervously looking over their shoulders.”
Daffodil latest:
