Newcastle beat Wolves 3-0 for first home win of the year

NEWCASTLE, England :Newcastle United returned to winning ways with a 3-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League on Saturday after goals from Alexander Isak, Anthony Gordon and Tino Livramento gave Eddie Howe's side their first home win of 2024.

Newcastle had gone four games without a win at St James' Park and victory moved them up to eighth place with 40 points while Gary O'Neil's Wolves are two points behind in 10th.

Wolves started the contest the better of the two teams and even dominated possession in the first half, but Newcastle's defence stood firm while the home side capitalised on counter-attacks to get on the board.

Newcastle took the lead against the run of play when Gordon initiated a counter and his pass found Bruno Guimaraes bursting into the box.

The Brazilian's shot was blocked by Maximilian Kilman but as the ball looped up in the air, Isak was on hand to head it in for his 15th goal in all competitions this season.

As the rain came lashing down, Gordon doubled their lead when he capitalised on a mix-up after Wolves keeper Jose Sa's effort to block a low cross saw the ball fall to the winger, who scored with aplomb.

Joe Willock nearly made it 3-0 soon after the restart when he connected with a diving header which beat Dan Bentley - who had replaced Sa at halftime - but his effort was blocked on the line by some last-ditch defending from Toti.

Wolves managed to make inroads into Newcastle's box in the second half and they could have denied them a clean sheet but goalkeeper Martin Dubravka made three smart saves to deny Nathan Fraser, Pablo Sarabia and Jean-Ricner Bellegarde.

As the clock wound down and fans began to celebrate a first home win since mid-December, Livramento provided the icing on the