Newcastle 1-0 Wolves

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Newcastle belatedly got their Premier League campaign up and running at home to Wolves on Saturday afternoon as new record signing Nick Woltemade stepped up with a vital winning goal on his debut.

After a frantic start which could have seen Newcastle concede twice inside the first minute, we settled down and began to dominate, though we're clearly still lacking fluency.

And having received the almost inevitable news that our new historically robust Number 9 Yoane Wissa had done his knee on international duty, 6' 6" German international Woltemade was thrust into the starting XI, flanked by Barnes and Murphy.

And while he got the winning goal (a towering header at the Leazes from a trademark Murphy cross), he showed plenty of evidence of the kind of link up play he offers, holding up the ball well and laying it off intelligently.

One particularly sumptuous ball over the top to Barnes resulted in a Murphy goal being disallowed for offside, Barnes going a fraction too early.

Murphy and Barnes had rather contrasting games - the former using his first start of the season to showcase his effectiveness with the assist for Woltemade as well as some narrow misses, the latter linking up well but completely wayward in his finishing.

That's becoming something of a theme in the early days of this season.

And so, with a much-needed league win under our belts, we get ready for something rather different as we welcome none other than Barcelona to St James' under the lights on Thursday night.

Bring it on.