Newcastle 3-0 Wolves
by Roger Domeneghetti
at St James Park

THE TOON Express just keeps on rolling. This is HoweBall at its best, not a runaway engine, the brakes off, all edge-of-the-seat nerves, but a well-oiled, powerfully efficient passenger train building momentum as its journey continues.

A fifth League win in a row, a ninth in all competitions, takes Newcastle into the top four, just three points off Forest in second. Are they in the title mix? Hell, is the treble on?

This, then, was not an ideal time for Wolves to head to Tyneside. Wanderers were unbeaten in Vitor Pereira’s first three League games in charge. They have now lost their last two.

This result saw them drop back into the bottom three. One step forward and all that.

Aleksander Isak — who else? — led the way for Newcastle, grabbing his 16th and 17th goals of the season and setting up Anthony Gordon for the home team’s third.

In the process, he became only the fourth player to score in eight or more successive Premier League appearances, after Jamie Vardy, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Daniel Sturridge.

The opener came just after the half-hour mark and was thanks to two huge doses of luck (isn’t that always the way for teams on a good run?).

Isak received the ball in the wide left position, and as he drifted inside, Joao Gomes put in a good challenge, however the ball ricocheted back into the Swede’s path.

His shot was not his best, but it took a wicked deflection off Rayan Ait-Nouri, wrong-footing the hapless Jose Sa.

The second after 57 minutes was more matter of fact. Bruno Guimaraes received the ball up on the edge of the box and threaded it through to Isak unmarked on the penalty.

With the striker in such a rich vein of form, there was only ever likely to be one outcome. He steadied himself and sent Sa the wrong way.

With just over a quarter of an hour to go, Isak turned provider. He could have taken the shot, no-one would have begrudged him going for a hat trick, instead he squared to Gordon who swept home from 12 yards.

Despite the defeat, and their defensive frailties, Wolves made Newcastle work for their victory; they had their chances.

Jorgen Strand Larsen hit the outside of the post, Matheus Cunha forced a great save from Martin Dubravka and Santiago Bueno had a goal ruled out for handball.