Newcastle v Wolves: Nuno's men ready to dig deep once more

And while Nuno Espirito Santo always focuses on the present, they can take heart from what they did in Tyneside last year, writes Joe Edwards.

Wolves refused to throw in the towel and Matt Doherty grabbed an ever so sweet 94th-minute winner as it finished 2-1 to the visitors.

A similar display of character came on Thursday as Nuno’s side won by the same scoreline at Slovakian champions Slovan Bratislava in Europa League action.

Newcastle are not doing all that well under former Villa boss Steve Bruce, of course. They have only won twice in nine league games this term.

However, if Wolves are to come away from St James’ Park with anything, it is likely they will have to dig deep – as they did last December, and as they did on Thursday.

Leander Dendoncker, who is hoping to start after coming off the bench in the Slovan success, said: “There are not a lot of days to recover, but it’s been like this since the start of the season.

“We are used to it now, so we just have to be ready.

“It’s a good thing to have a lot of games. We’ll try and go for a win there, and we know we’ll have to be at our very best.”

It will be interesting to see how Wolves are set up for this one.

Does Adama Traore come back in from the off? Does Jonny Castro Otto return to left-wing-back? Will Ruben Neves play in midfield?

Will it be a 3-5-2 formation, or the 3-4-3 which improved things greatly in Slovakia?

Nuno, despite not having the biggest squad, has a fair amount of options.

What you would expect is for Raul Jimenez to play up front. He is aiming to score for the third game running.

“We have to recover well and be ready for Newcastle,” said Jimenez.

And on if he prefers playing in a particular formation, he added: “We have to adapt to any formation. I like both.”

Ryan Bennett (groin) and Pedro Neto (heel) are doubts after not making the trip to Bratislava.

Diogo Jota got sent off for two bookings, but the one-game ban is just for the Europa, so he can play.