26 mins Having earlier fluffed a free-kick on the edge of the D, Kieran Trippier made amends by curling in an absolute beauty for Alexander Isak to perfectly guide a header into the far corner of the Gallowgate goal. As good as it gets. 1-0

Half time: Magpies 1 Wolves 0

70 mins Newly arrived substitute Hwang Hee-Chan picked up the ball just outside the box and rode a couple of challenges but had lost the ball only for a falling Trippier to scuff his clearance straight back to Hwang who just had to slot into an empty net. 1-1

79 mins Sean Longstaff played the ball out to Miggy Almiron running down the right and he passed to Joe Willock who was in space on the edge of the box. Miggy carried on his run, Willock returned it to him superbly and he took a touch before via a slight deflection off Max Kilman - the defender left helpless in a similar manner to Sven Botman in our last two matches. 2-1

Full time: Magpies 2 Wolves 1

Eddie Howe said:

"Our first-half performance was very, very good. Alex (Isak) scored a massive goal for us. Second half, a one-goal lead is always delicate and it should have been more at half-time.

"Wolves, to be fair, came back into the game, we know they have very good players. But the character to get that winning goal is a good feeling for us.

"Not sure whether he’ll be back after the international break. We hope so, but (we're) not 100% certain.”

On Callum Wilson:

"Callum's had a difficult week. He hasn't trained all week. He did really well to put himself on the pitch today."

Julen Lopetegui said:

"It is always difficult toaccept a defeat because you want to win all the matches. It is difficult but wehave to do it and we have to improve and to continue working for the nextmatch. 

"I don’t know if we deserved more. If it was just the second-half, thenyes. But in the first-half, they were better than us. We hit the post and aftera very clear penalty, which was a pity.

"In the first-half, they overcame usbut in the second-half we improved a lot and we changed many things, we overcamethem, we deserved to score and in the end we should have drawn the match.

"If it’s a penalty and a red card it’s a different match, but we can’tdo anything. I represent my club and my fans and we are very unhappy with thisdecision, it was unfair, but we have to think of the next match.

"It's not a matter of what I think. It's true, we have suffered a big mistake a lot of matches ago in Liverpool and today, for me, it was a penalty. But the VAR can't help the referee in this case and I can't say anything more. 

"We were unlucky with the decision. We didn't have any penalty since I arrived here, but we have to keep working, I don't want to put the focus on only the referee. Because we have things to work on in our team and for me too. I'm not happy with how we ended the match.

"We lost against a very good team but in the second half we deserved more.

"The relegation fight will be until the last match. We will fight with a lot of good teams and we have to be ready. But we have to focus on the next one and carry on fighting to improve the wrong things.

"The substitutions depend on the players and afterwards it’s not a goodchange because I did this change to be very strong in defence and it was a pitywe suffered the second-half and we didn’t have the calm and the capacity toovercome them at the end.”

Pondering his team selection of a side winless in five Premier League matches, Eddie Howe reiterated that starting berths would be earned on merit rather than reputation. And to that end he replaced no less than five players who began last week's defeat at Manchester City.

Doubtless those choices were motivated by observing training - and also being unable to call on injury victim Anthony Gordon - but his revised formation meant that for the first time, the terrace ditty about Bruno being in the middle, Botman at the back and Isak in attack came to pass.

And that turned out to be exactly what we needed, as the Swedish striker produced an unrelenting performance topped by a fine goal that set Newcastle on the road to a much-needed victory at a relieved St.James' Park.

Replacing Callum Wilson, Isak was a constant forward threat and stretched the Wolves defence in addition to heading home Kieran Trippier's 26th minute free kick to end our recent goal drought. Had that turned out to be the winner, we may have finally have deployed our "wicked game" headline...

In addition to Isak, Fabian Schar, Jacob Murphy, Joe Willock and birthday boy Allan Saint-Maximin were preferred to Jamaal Lascelles, Callum Wilson, Almiron, Gordon and the suspended Joelinton. 

That opener heralded a spell of pressure from United that significantly failed to yield a second goal; Bruno coming the closest when heading against the crossbar, after a corner kick was returned across the six yard box by Dan Burn. Meanwhile a rare forward foray from the visitors ended with Daniel Podence glancing his shot off the goal frame soon after.

Wolves were aggrieved that the officials had failed to act at 0-0 when Nick Pope tangled with Raul Jimenez in his box after the goalkeeper got a heavy first touch on a backpass. 

Referee Andy Madley was unmoved and VAR didn't intervene. That denied Wolves a penalty and saw Pope avoid what would have been a second red card in as many home games. That would have landed him a four game ban and added yet another twist to our goalkeeping soap opera, putting recent Red Devils loanee Martin Dubravka between the posts against Manchester United next month.

The second half saw United increasingly eclipsed by a revitalised Wolves side, who benefited from the half time replacement of the ineffective Adama Traore by Pedro Neto.

With Newcastle looking increasingly lethargic, Pope was forced into noteworthy stops to deny Pedro Neto and Joao Moutinho before a defensive calamity saw the visitors level - just after United had made a double replacement to try and regain the initiative.

Hwang Hee-Chan had been on the field for just a matter of seconds when he shrugged off a shirt pull and wriggled into the United box on 70 minutes, pushing a pass forward for Jimenez to run on to.

Trippier reached the ball first some eight yards from goal, but slipped in attempting a clearance and gifted it to Hwang. With Pope out of his goal, the South Korean international who netted twice against us last season had the simplest of tasks to draw his side level. 

United were to have a super sub of their own though; Almiron exchanging passes with Joe Willock at the Leazes End before looping the ball home in the 79th minute with the help of a deflection - the first time that we've scored more than once in a league game since Boxing Day.

The cushion of a third goal could have followed but Botman snatched at a chance in the 90th minute and cleared the crossbar by some distance following an inventive move stemming from a corner kick.

The black and whites ground out the precious victory following five minutes of time added time: some gritty performances typified by Schar's supreme effort and some decisive interventions by Bruno, although he again looked troubled by an ankle issue at times. 

Three points saw United advance one place to fifth, two points ahead of Liverpool with a game in hand. They now trail fourth-placed Spurs by four points, having played two games less than them.

On a weekend when other results went in our favour, a positive outcome of our own was needed to restore some stability and confidence on and off the field after the debilitating trio of recent losses. 

And we got there, just about, those selected providing some vindication of the manager's changes and in the case of Isak, further hints of the sparkling talent that we invested in last summer.

Biffa