Wolves 1-1 Newcastle: Saint-Maximin's late stunner maintains unbeaten start
Newcastle continued our unbeaten start to the Premier League season, securing a 1-1 draw with Wolves at Molineux after dominating both possession and chances.
With injuries to both Bruno Guimaraes and Callum Wilson, we came into the game with a weakened starting 11 - which was also missing club record signing Alexander Isak after our £58m man hadn't been granted international clearance in time.
A trademark shot from outside of the box from Ruben Neves gave Wolves the lead and their first goal for over 300 minutes in the Premier League.
However, it was Allan Saint-Maximin who saved the day for Newcastle with an absolute rocket of a shot on the volley from outside of the box to secure the point in the 90th minute after Wolves failed to fully clear their lines.
Following on from an enthralling 3-3 draw with the champions last week, some will see this as a missed opportunity to have taken all three, but the late equaliser and spirited display in the face of injury issues will please Howe - even if we were lacklustre in the first half and looking tired at times after three games in a week.
Sean Longstaff was denied a penalty after the midfielder had his shirt pulled just inside the box before Willock somehow failed to hit the target from point blank range - but VAR deemed it wasn’t enough to give the spot kick.
Half an hour in and neither team looked very likely to score – although Newcastle had dominated so far with 62% possession and eight attempts on goal - but it was Wolves who broke the deadlock just before the break as Ruben Neves fired into the bottom left corner from range.
As the second half began, Newcastle came out looking tired and poor in the final third - on the other hand our opponents seemed to want it more, fighting for every ball and making it difficult for our defence to play out from the back.
We dominated possession once again in the final 45 minutes, but struggled to create too many clear cut chances against an organised Wolves team who looked quick on the counter attack.
That counter attacking play almost sealed the victory for Wolves who had the ball in the back of the net in the 81st minute, but Jimenez's effort was ruled out for a foul on Ryan Fraser earlier in the play.
One positive from the game was a Premier League debut for 19-year-old Elliot Anderson who came off the bench on the the 84th minute for Miguel Almiron and almost scored the winner with a header that rattled off the bar in injury time.
Saint-Maximin, in the main, had a frustrating afternoon and was kept fairly quiet by Nelson Semedo after his dazzling display last week where he recorded three assists in one game.
But the talented Frenchman only needed once chance to show how truly special he can be and to score an absolute beauty of a goal in the 90th minute to get the away end bouncing once again and rescue our unbeaten record. Saying that, it was a concern to see him hobble off holding his hamstring.
Miguel Almiron was a bright spark and Sven Botman looked a dominant force at the back, although it was noticeable how much we missed Bruno Guimaraes quality and aggression in midfield, with Sean Longstaff losing the ball too often in that deep-lying role. The draw takes us back up into seventh place and just a point away from top four.
Our attention now turns to a very difficult game at Anfield on Wednesday night against a talented Liverpool side coming off the back of a 9-0 victory.
STARTING XI: Pope; Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn; Willock, S Longstaff, Joelinton; Almiron, Wood, Saint-Maximin.
SUBS: Darlow, Dummett, Lascelles, Ritchie, Targett, Manquillo, Anderson, Fraser, Murphy
