Eddie Howe reflecting on a huge weekend for Newcastle United | OneFootball

Eddie Howe watched on as his team picked up their first win of the season.

A deserved 1-0 victory over Wolves, though the opening couple of minutes saw Nick Pope forced into making one very good save and one truly top class one.

Eddie Howe seeing his new record signing get the winning goal, a quality Nick Woltemade header from a superb Jacob Murphy cross.

The there points banked despite United once again failing to score the goals the chances created should have produced, including Murphy somehow hitting the keeper when he had the entire goal to aim at, from only six yards out.

Matters not helped by a woeful referee (Chris Kavanagh) and VAR (Timothy Wood – First match as a VAR in Premier League).

The pair of them somehow failing to send off Yerson Mosquera who blatantly took out Harvey Barnes when the Wolves defender was last man.

Then Kavanagh bottling it when he should have sent off Joao Gomes for a second yellow card, a really bad challenge on Sandro Tonali.

Plenty for Eddie Howe to reflect on…

“A massive, massive win for us.

“The lads performed very well.

“Hard fought, disciplined, we could have scored more.

“But we will take the win however it comes.

“I thought that we played pretty well after the first five minutes.

“The fact that we haven’t won a game puts more pressure on you in the latter stages.

“The win was all that mattered but we’d love to win in a better style and score more goals.

“We are though defending well as a team.

“It was great to see Nick [Woltemade] score on his debut.

“Very strong, I was very pleased with him.

“Tactically he understood what we wanted.

“It was a shift for him, he came off with cramp at the end.

“He took his goal brilliantly.

“I didn’t see much wrong with the team performance at all and I was really pleased with the commitment of the players.

“A great cross from Murphy and great to see Nick score, he [Woltemade] is a very good finisher, very clever.

“He can get a lot of goals with his head too.”

Eddie Howe on his defence, three clean sheets in four games so far:

“Really pleased with how we have defended.

“I think even the Liverpool game where we conceded three, but with ten men, I thought we were really good.

“We have had that resilient look about us again [against Wolves].

“Four games doesn’t mean anything, it’s a long season and we have got a lot of big games ahead, but certainly good signs for us.

“It’s not just the defending players, although they should rightly get a lot of credit.

“It is the whole team [defending well] but the team is functioning very well at the moment.”

Eddie Howe asked whether Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa can play together:

“It is something we can do and we will look at.

“I don’t know if we want to change the tactical framework too much but I will never rule anything out.”

Newcastle 1 Wolves 0 – Saturday 13 September 2025 3pm

(Stats via BBC Sport)

Goals:

Newcastle United:

Woltemade 29

Possession was Newcastle 57% Wolves 43%

Total shots were Newcastle 16 Wolves 8

Shots on target were Newcastle 4 Wolves 3

Corners were Newcastle 10 Wolves 4

Touches in the box Newcastle 29 Wolves 23

Newcastle team v Wolves:

Pope, Trippier, Schar, Burn, Livramento, Tonali, Bruno, Joelinton (Willock 65), Barnes (Elanga 80), Woltemade (Osula 65), Murphy (Botman 95)

Subs:

Ramsdale, Hall, Thiaw, Krafth, Miley

(Match Report – Until someone reminds me it was the first of Nick Woltemade’s 200 goals for Newcastle United… Read HERE)

(Newcastle 1 Wolves 0 – Match ratings and comments on all Newcastle United players – Read HERE)

(Newcastle 1 Wolves 0 – Instant Newcastle United fan/writer reaction – Read HERE)

Newcastle United fixtures confirmed dates and times (All of the Champions League matches will also be available to watch on TV in the UK):

Thursday 18th September: Newcastle United vs FC Barcelona (8pm)

Sunday 21 September – Bournemouth v Newcastle (2pm) Sky Sports

Wednesday 24 September – Newcastle v Bradford (7.45pm) Sky Sports+

Sunday 28 September– Newcastle v Arsenal (4.30pm) Sky Sports

Wednesday 1st October: Union SG vs Newcastle United (5:45pm)

Sunday 5 October– Newcastle v Forest (2pm) Sky Sports

Saturday 18 October – Brighton v Newcastle (3pm)