Barclays Premier League - Match Review: Wolverhampton Wanderers’ vs. Newcastle United
Wolves played out an interesting draw with Newcastle United in their third Premier League match of the season. Both the teams, who are considered to be relegation material as far as quality is concerned in the highly rated English league, gave a good account of themselves but lacked the sufficient attack power to get the eventual winner.
Newcastle came to the match after their big win over Aston Villa in the last round of matches in the Premier League while Wolves drew their last match in the league against Everton. The match between Newcastle and Wolves took place at Wolves’ home ground, the Molineaux stadium.
The Magpies started with their star striker Andy Carroll in attack, who had got a hat trick against Aston Villa in the big 6-0 win at the Saint James’s Park stadium. They also started with Kevin Nolan in a secondary striker’s position just behind Carroll. On the other hand, Wolves banked on their centre forwards Kevin Doyle and Ebanks to lead their offensive line despite the duo having a barren run of form lately.
In the midfield for the men from Tyneside, Alan Smith, Joey Barton, Gutierrez and Routledge took their regular spots. Newcastle’s opponents, Wolves opted for Jones and Henry in their midfield supported by Jarvis and Ward on the right and left wing respectively. At the back for Chris Hughton’s team, the error prone Coloccini took his centre back berth alongside Williamson, these two were complimented by Perch at right back and Enrique at left back.
Conversely for Wolves, Craddock and Bera played as the usual central defenders whilst Van Damme and Foley played as the wing backs. Right from the start of the match, Newcastle started to maintain a higher tempo as Joey Barton almost got booked for a high tackle on Henry in the midfield area in the 2nd minute of the match but the English midfielder escaped with just a warning from the referee.
In the 9th minute of the match, Newcastle were at the brink of opening the scoring but Joey Barton just mistimed his run and therefore was unsuccessful in making contact with Routledge’s cross from the right hand side. Newcastle United started the half by playing their famous attacking form of football and quickly started to create chances for their players.
In the 22nd minute of the match, the first yellow card of the evening went to Kevin Doyle for his unwise push in the midfield area on Henry. Wolves counter attacked brilliantly in the 26th minute of the match but Ebanks only managed to hit the goal post for them regardless of being in a good position to put the ball on the mark with his header.
Van Damme became the second player to get booked in the match at the 37th minute mark for a bad tackle on the Argentinean national Gutierrez but the Belgian defender was lucky only to escape with a yellow card. In the 43rd minute of the match, Carroll was booked by the referee for dissent and shortly afterwards Wolves took the lead with Ebanks’ prolific finish after the forward collected Van Damme’s cross from the right side of midfield.
At halftime, Wolves were leading the match by a goal to nil; thanks to Ebanks but the tables quickly turned on them as after the second half started in the 62nd minute of the match, Carroll met Barton’s free kick with a forceful header to bring the Tyneside club on level terms with Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Newcastle totally dominated the match after getting the equalizer and almost scored in the later stages of the second half with Nolan but his shot on goal was amazingly saved by Wolverhampton’s goal keeper, Hahnemann. Despite having several chances to take the lead, Newcastle United never had the killer touch about them as the match finally ended up as a draw between both the sides.
The man of the match was undoubtedly Newcastle’s towering striker Andy Carroll, who provided great link up play with Nolan and the rest of the midfield and got himself a goal for his troubles during the match as well.
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