St James’ Park awaits – Newcastle v Wolves preview | OneFootball

Welcome to the Newcastle v Wolves preview.

Saturday 13th September – 3pm kick-off.

Newcastle United look to secure their first win of the season this weekend, hosting a Wolves team yet to claim so much as a point from their first three Premier League matches.

After the long, drawn out saga that was the transfer window, we can finally concentrate on what’s happening on the pitch. With new signings raring to hit the ground running, our season starts here, as we look to turn draws into wins, get points on the board and climb the league table. Wolves will be no pushovers as they’ll be desperate to get something from the match and gain their first points of the season.

This starts a run of seven matches in just twenty-two days and Eddie Howe’s new squad depth will be instantly put to the test with four league matches, two European challenges and the start of our defence of the League Cup. Exciting times could well be in store for NUFC.

The Toon have played three matches so far this season and have arguably been the better team in all three. Despite the level of performance, we’re yet to achieve a victory and have scored just twice. The 0-0 draws away at Villa and Leeds came either side of an incredible performance at home to Liverpool, where crowd and players went toe-to-toe with the reigning champions and almost pulled off an improbable victory despite being reduced to ten men before half-time. Strikes from Bruno and Osula overturned a two goal deficit before a heartbreaking Liverpool goal ten minutes into injury time ensured an undeserved defeat for United. Played three, drawn two, lost one.

Wolves have played three premier league matches and a League Cup tie this season. They’ve lost all three league games and are bottom of the table, being the only side without a point. They have however experienced some success in the League Cup, beating West Ham at home to make the third round. Played four, lost three, won one.

Last time out

Newcastle travelled to Elland Road with high hopes of achieving their first win of the season but played out a disappointing 0-0 draw with Leeds United. A match of few chances saw Osula have a shot blocked early on and Murphy have two efforts at goal but this was a fairly dour match with talking points at a premium. Nick Woltemade was watching from the stands and hopefully he, along with Wissa, will be able to add the firepower in attack that will kickstart our season.

Wolves hosted Everton and suffered a third successive defeat despite scoring two goals. After equalising an early set-back they soon found themselves behind again at halftime. It looked game over when Everton made it 3-1 but back came wolves to make a game of it in an unfortunate 3-2 defeat.

Newcastle are unbeaten in their last seven league matches with Wolves, winning five and drawing two.

Wolves have lost on each of their past four visits to St James Park. The Toon have scored nine times in this sequence and conceded just once.

The sides have met in the Premier League on twenty occasions, Newcastle have won seven of these and had eleven draws, with only two defeats.

The Toon have found the net at least once in their past fourteen competitive matches with Wolves.

Memorable match

In 2012, Alan Pardew’s NUFC were enjoying an unlikely challenge for Champions League qualification. We’d started the season with an eleven match unbeaten run and went on to enjoy fine wins over Sunderland, Man U, Liverpool and Chelsea. Krul, Coloccini, Cabaye, Ben Arfa and Ba were boosted by the January signing of Papiss Cisse in a team that was a match for anyone.

The Toon Army were in a boisterous mood when Wolves came to town and this was further increased when our new number nine took just six minutes to fire NUFC into the lead. Soon after it was 2-0 when club legend Jonas Gutierrez crashed home an effort from outside of the area to seemingly secure the points with less than twenty minutes gone. Any Toon fan hoping we’d be able to snooze our way to victory through the second half however, was to have another thing coming. Back came Wolves with a much more composed second forty-five minutes that reaped the reward of two goals. Newcastle had to be content with another point towards a fifth placed finish whereas Wolves’ joy would be short-lived as they finished bottom of the league, twelve points off safety. Newcastle 2-2 Wolves

Played for both

Temuri Ketsbaia played for the Toon between 1997 and 2000. He announced his arrival in spectacular fashion when scoring a last-minute winner against Croatia Zagreb to confirm our place in the Champions League. Something of a cult hero on Tyneside, highlights include a number of last-minute goals, scoring in successive FA Cup quarter-finals and a somewhat bizarre celebration against Bolton Wanderers, when he took his frustrations out on an innocent advertising hoarding. He moved on to Wolves in 2000 and made twenty-four appearances, scoring three goals.

Sabastien 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 nose dive. 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 following a 0-0 draw away at Leeds:

“I thought defensively, we were very strong. We’ve been really good in the three games so far in that respect, but we’ve got work to do at the other end of the pitch, which is really unlike us. We’ve historically been a really good attacking team, very free-scoring and very good at chance creation, but it hasn’t quite been there. We’re disappointed with that aspect of our play.”

Vitor Pereira after a 3-2 home defeat against Everton:

“We cannot commit these types of mistakes, because every time we commit mistakes, they punish us with a goal. We are conceding, we are offering goals. We face a strong team, I think they are stronger than last season, and you must be at your best level to face Everton.”

Charity

Newcastle United fans food bank will once again be collecting opposite the Gallowgate end and gratefully receiving food, money and toiletries for those in need. Of particular interest are non-perishable food and drink items (such as noodles, pasta, rice, canned food, soup, cereal, cordial, long life milk etc) as well as toiletries such as shower gel, shampoo, toothpaste and sanitary products. Please give whatever you can, any donation is very much appreciated.

Our season starts here! With a number of Toon players amongst the scorers at international level this week, it’s time to start banging the goals in and put a run of wins together. There are seven games before the next international break and I fancy a nervy victory to kickstart this potentially crucial part of the season. Newcastle 1-0 Wolves

(Next up – Newcastle United will be looking forward to a mouthwatering clash with Spanish giants Barcelona in their opening match of a Champions League campaign. A quirk of fate means the match takes place exactly twenty-eight years and one day since Faustino Asprilla scored a glorious hat-trick in a famous 3-2 win for Newcastle against the Catalan side on a night where almost everything went right for the Toon. The atmosphere for that one was absolutely electric and remains one of the best matches I have ever had the privilege to attend. Read all about that glorious night HERE)