Wolverhampton Wanderers 1 Newcastle United 1
Aug 30 2010 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal
Attwell gave free-kicks aplenty – 47 in all, 11 for first-half Wolves fouls – but did not dip into his pocket until the 22nd minute. By then it was too late. Once the dam burst in the second half cards came in a flurry - 12 shown in all, four for tackles on Barton. By the final ten minutes every challenge seemed to bring a caution.
To his immense credit, Barton did not rise to the bait. There was a hint of retaliation in the tackle on Kevin Foley which earned his booking, but that took until the sixth added minute. He moaned a couple of times at Attwell but the only prolonged dissent came walking off alongside an unsympathetic McCarthy. The proliferation of free-kicks allowed Barton to demonstrate his deftness with the dead ball, capitalising on Ronald Zubar’s foul on Jonás Gutiérrez to tee up Carroll’s headed equaliser. Until then a smash-and-grab looked possible. Newcastle utterly dominated the opening quarter without finding the net.
Sylvan Ebanks-Blake headed Dave Jones’ corner against the post after 26 minutes, then pounced when James Perch, outnumbered at the far post, failed to deal adequately with van Damme’s cross. The lead could have doubled after 50 minutes. The ball’s change of direction as Perch slid in on Matt Jarvis made it look like a perfect penalty area tackle but replays suggested the defender only kicked his opponent. Faced with a choice between a corner and a penalty, Attwell gave a goal kick.
Barton was by no means the only Newcastle player who had to stand up and be counted. For the third game running Smith put in a performance to suggest if new signing Cheick Tiote is to force his way into this side it will be alongside, not instead of, the Yorkshireman. He might not be in Steve Harper’s good books, however, after the collision which saw the goalkeeper play 60 minutes with a broken nose.
Harper’s face, Jody Craddock’s bandaged head and Barton’s black-and-blue calves and ankles perfectly illustrated the game Newcastle were thrust into. That they left with a point was a glowing character reference.
