Eddie Howe shuts down Gary O'Neil's Newcastle United claim after Wolves win at St James' Park

Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe admitted his side set up differently to counter Wolverhampton Wanderers' threat, despite Gary O'Neil believing otherwise.

The Magpies claimed their first win at St James' Park in 2024 after first-half goals from Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon, and an injury time strike from substitute Tino Livramento.

Wolves had 56% of possession and O'Neil said after: "There is no way Newcastle let us have the ball, the reason why we had it was because we showed quality.

"I know Newcastle, I know Eddie Howe. The reason we had the ball was because of how good we were on the ball." I thought our structure was better than theirs, caused them more problems than theirs did ours."

Howe, however, revealed it was a deliberate ploy. He said: “It was a slight tweak from our normal way of playing. We analyse our opposition, like we do always, and I know there’s a lot of people that say we play the same way every week, but I can assure you that’s not the case.

"There’s always tweaks and little things we try to do to help us in our performance, and that was one today, to try to maybe play a slightly more transitional game."

United moved up to eighth in the Premier League table as a result of their win. Howe's side next travel to Chelsea, a direct rival in the race for a top six or seven finish.