Newcastle United were seconds away from returning home with three crucial points, but a late goal from Wolves forced a draw.
This match seemed to cause some déjà vu among both sets of supporters as a late stoppage time goal enabled Wolverhampton to salvage a 1-1 draw against Newcastle United at the Molineux Stadium. Wolverhampton created the best chances of the evening, but Newcastle did well in frustrating their opponents and even took the lead early in the second half.
Newcastle did enough to earn three points last night, but a delayed full time whistle from the referee and an ill-advised decision from Martin Dubravka to try and catch rather than punch the ball away cost the Magpies three points. Plenty of observations were made, but here are three key things we learned.
“Sean Longstaff, He’s One Of Our Own!”
Sean Longstaff is enjoying his football with Newcastle’s first team and his performance last night shows that he is worthy of being on the team sheet each week. Longstaff did a little bit of everything against Wolves, but what stood out the most was his accurate passing, composure on the ball and urgency to make some crucial interceptions.
His partner in the middle, Isaac Hayden, might get some more attention because of the goal he scored, but Longstaff’s clever play with the ball and dirty work off the ball is what gave Newcastle’s offense life.
The Debut of Miguel Almiron
Newcastle’s new and most expensive signing made his debut last night when he replaced Christian Atsu in the 71st minute. The Paraguayan was met with loud cheers from the Toon Army and he wasted no time looking for the ball from the second he stepped on the field. Almiron hustled back to help out in defense as the Magpies were trying to maintain their 1-0 lead under constant pressure, and he looked confident and comfortable offensively as he called for multiple through-balls. Moreover, the former MLS star from Atlanta United came close to bagging an assist with a sharp pass to Ayoze Perez, but the Spaniard missed the target. Overall, Almiron looked good in his debut.
Lack of Set Pieces
Newcastle placed more pressure on themselves due to the lack of set pieces they earned. They hardly earned any free-kicks from dangerous areas and they only had one corner kick all match, while Wolverhampton set up shop by the corner flag with 13 corner kicks. Newcastle did well to create some scoring chances out of nothing in midfield, but the wingers should have taken more players on to try and make something happen and at least get some deflections out of play.
Newcastle are a good team when they get set pieces and they utilize them fairly well with big bodies like Salomon Rondon, Jamaal Lascelles, Fabian Schar and Florian Lejeune in the box, but neither player had a chance to get on the end of a corner. This statistic needs to improve by at least five or six corners against Huddersfield Town and Burnley later this month.