Mitrovic leaves Wolves furious
ALEKSANDAR MITROVIC’S first-half strike was enough to see off Wolves and move Newcastle back to the top of the table.
Mitrovic struck 60 seconds before half-time with his sixth of the season to earn Rafa Benitez’s side their 11th away win of the campaign.
His strike left Wolves seething because they felt that he should have been sent off for his 27th-minute challenge on goalkeeper Carl Ikeme — 13 minutes after he had been booked for a foul on Richard Stearman.
Newcastle midfielder Jonjo Shelvey received a predictably hostile reception from the Wolves fans.
After the teams last met in September, Shelvey was banned for five games and fined £100,000 for racially abusing Wolves midfielder Romain Saiss.
Saiss was not involved in this game because he has just returned from playing for Morocco at the African Cup of Nations.
Newcastle should have made the perfect start only for Jack Colback to waste a golden opportunity.
With Wolves defender Stearman lying injured in the centre circle, Newcastle winger Matt Ritchie took advantage of the space to race clear and release Colback but his poor shot was saved by the legs of Ikeme.
Wolves found chances of their own hard to come by before their Helder Costa weaved some magic.
He surged across the pitch to feed Andreas Weimann, whose cross was then volleyed narrowly wide by Nouha Dicko at the far post. Wolves then wasted another opening five minutes later when Costa’s wing free-kick was headed on by Dave Edwards only for a Stearman to stab the ball past the far post. Newcastle took the lead on the stroke of half-time.
Shelvey floated a free-kick into the Wolves area and Mohamed Diame’s shot was turned on by Jamal Lascelles to Mitrovic who stabbed the ball home.
Wolves sought a quick response at the start of the second-half and were inches away from getting it when Edwards narrowly failed to get his header on target. But they struggled to really test Newcastle keeper Karl Darlow, with Lee Evans lifting his shot well over the bar in the 74th minute.