Newcastle United made it nine wins on the bounce with a convincing 3-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers at St James' Park.
The 119 year streak of not doing the double over Wolves ended on Wednesday night as Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon made the Premier League strugglers pay for some woeful defending in the second half.
Newcastle went in one goal to the good at half time, but Wolves will have been feeling pretty happy with their work in the first 45 minutes as they defended brilliantly.
Wolves made sure Newcastle had very little space in which to operate and even Alexander Isak's goal had a big slice of good fortune after a deflection took it away from goalkeeper Jose Sa who looked unbeatable up until then.
That 34th minute goal ensured Alexander Isak went into the Newcastle history books as the first player to score in eight consecutive games for the club, surpassing Alan Shearer and Joe Willock who both managed seven in seven.
However, the Sweden international wasn't done. Newcastle turned it up a notch after the break, and Wolves' rock-solid defence fell asleep, allowing Bruno Guimaraes to play a lovely ball into Isak in the box on 57 minutes, who had all the time in the world to pick his spot. There were no deflections this time and no worry at all that the dubious goals panel would take this one away, so the record was fully confirmed.
Isak turned provider on 74 minutes after striding clear of the defence, timing his run perfectly to stay onside, he tried to play in Anthony Gordon but Wolves got a man back to stop the cross, but Isak pounced on the loose ball and played it into Gordon at the second time of asking, and just like Isak, Gordon had plenty of time to choose where to put the ball.
Wolves did have the ball in the net after Newcastle failed to deal with a corner, but Santiago Bueno's bundled effort was chalked off by VAR after the ball hit his hand before he stabbed it home.
Martin Dubravka got to keep another clean sheet on his 36th birthday as a result of that VAR intervention and some poor finishing from Wolves.
There were eight added minutes tacked on to the end of the game after an injury to Jose Sa and a couple of lengthy VAR reviews for Isak's offside before Gordon's goal and the disallowed Wolves effort. However, despite the extra time played, in the 97th minute, Sandro Tonali went on a run down Newcastle's right flank as if he'd just stepped onto the pitch as fresh as paint. He is an absolute machine. Nothing came of it, but it had to be mentioned because it was so impressive.
Newcastle move up into fourth spot in the Premier League while Wolves drop back into the relegation zone on goal difference. What a night.
Next up for Newcastle is Bournemouth at home. The Cherries are a bit of a bogey team, with Eddie Howe only getting the better of his old side once in six attempts, but we are all about ending streaks this season, so we're not feeling too worried yet.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
![]() |
25 | 36 | 60 |
2 |
![]() |
25 | 29 | 53 |
3 |
![]() |
25 | 12 | 47 |
4 |
![]() |
25 | 17 | 44 |
5 |
![]() |
25 | 15 | 43 |
6 |
![]() |
25 | 13 | 43 |
7 |
![]() |
25 | 9 | 41 |
8 |
![]() |
25 | 5 | 39 |
9 |
![]() |
25 | -3 | 38 |
10 |
![]() |
25 | 0 | 37 |
11 |
![]() |
25 | 1 | 34 |
12 |
![]() |
25 | 12 | 30 |
13 |
![]() |
25 | -3 | 30 |
14 |
![]() |
25 | -4 | 30 |
15 |
![]() |
25 | -7 | 29 |
16 |
![]() |
25 | -18 | 27 |
17 |
![]() |
25 | -19 | 19 |
18 |
![]() |
25 | -27 | 17 |
19 |
![]() |
25 | -30 | 17 |
20 |
![]() |
25 | -38 | 9 |