Neves & Saint-Maximin crackers see points shared

Terrific strikes from Ruben Neves and Allan Saint-Maximin saw Wolves and Newcastle play out an entertaining 1-1 draw at Molineux on Sunday.

Portugal midfielder Neves sent a whizzing drive sailing beyond Nick Pope for the Wanderers’ second league goal of the season, having struggled up front since the opening day of the season.

Newcastle had a lot of shocks blocked but a moment of inspiration saw Saint-Maximin clatter a volley in from the edge of the box from Hwang Hee-chan’s poor attempted clearance in the 90th minute.

An entertaining start saw Joe Willock, Chris Wood and Pedro Neto go close in the opening 15 minutes, while the exciting Saint-Maximin was soon running at the home defence with his usual blend of excellent footwork and blistering pace.

The Wanderers gained the initiative as Raul Jimenez and Neto started to enjoy more success against the Magpies back four and the deadlock was broken in the 38th minute by Neves.

The 25-year-old was teed up by summer signing Goncalo Guedes and fired it well beyond Pope – the shot going through Willock’s leg – to add another cracker to his distinctive collection of long-range efforts.

They held that lead throughout the majority of the second half as Newcastle tried to open up the sturdy centre-back pairing of Max Kilman and Nathan Collins.

Fabian Schar escaped a red card check from VAR for a clumsy challenge on Neto before teammate Miguel Almiron set the Switzerland international up for a strike from distance which was deflected just wide.

Wolves had the ball in the back of the net again with ten minutes to go only to have it chalked off. Neto bundled over Ryan Fraser on the halfway line before charging clear and squaring for Jimenez, but VAR soon intervened to award Newcastle a free kick to disallow the goal.

The decision proved to be part of their downfall as Newcastle conjured up an equaliser their pressure deserved. Substitute Hwang lobbed his clearance straight to Saint-Maximin, who struck a wonderfully timed volley from the edge of the box into the bottom corner to earn the visitors a point.

They might have had all three had Elliot Anderson’s effort hit the back of the net and not the crossbar, but instead the spoils were deservedly shared.

The result sees Newcastle move up to seventh, continuing their unbeaten start to the season, while Wolves remain without a league win since April and down in 19th.