Wolverhampton Wanderers 1 Newcastle United 1

Last updated : 29 November 2003 By Footymad Previewer

Alan Shearer rescued a point for Newcastle United against relegation threatened Wolves at Molineux.

Shearer's 31st minute strike, his 13th goal of the season, cancelled out Nathan Blake's first goal of the campaign for Wolves who extended their unbeaten home run to six games.

Newcastle, who had been beaten 3-2 at Wolves in the FA Cup in January and whose last win at Molineux was in the 1989-90 season, had gone into the game on the back of a run of five wins in seven Premiership games.

But they were back in action less than 48 hours after beating Basle in the UEFA Cup.

Wolves had to ride their luck before making the breakthrough as Shearer rattled the bar with a close-range volley after 16 minutes before Titus Bramble headed wide from five yards six minutes later.

But Wolves always looked dangerous on the break and a long throughball from Alex Rae caused chaos in the Newcastle defence after 27 minutes.

Newcastle goalkeeper Shay Given raced out of his area to try and clear only for Blake to take the ball around him.

Blake looked to squander the chance to as he was closed down by three Newcastle defenders, but he managed to slide the ball home from 16 yards and past Bramble who was on the line.

Wolves joy proved to be short lived at Newcastle were level just four minutes later thanks to the vision of Lomana LuaLua.

He picked out Shearer with a pin-point pass and the former England skipper completed the job by driving his angled shot past goalkeeper Michael Oakes from 12 yards.

Newcastle were, however, fortunate to get to the interval on level terms as Wolves ended the half on the attack with Joey Gudjonsson slicing his shot wide of an open goal from just inside the edge of the area.

Having created so many openings in the first period it was perhaps no surprise that chances were harder to come by after the break.

But Blake should really have done better from the 71st minute opportunity that came his way when he headed a cross from Alex Rae over the bar from just three yards.

United were then rescued by the woodwork twice in the closing seven minutes when a 20 yard Gudjonsson free-kick hit the post and Henri Camara headed another Rae cross onto the bar.