Eddie Howe full of praise for matchwinner Harvey Barnes

Posted Monday, September 16, 2024 by PA

Newcastle manager Eddie Howe hailed one of the best goalscoring wingers in the business after Harvey Barnes came off the bench to score a stunning late winner at Wolves.

Trailing to Mario Lemina’s first-half goal, Fabian Schar’s deflected effort was followed by Barnes’ brilliant strike within the space of three minutes late in the second half to turn things around for a 2-1 victory.

It helped maintain Newcastle’s unbeaten start to the campaign – they have taken 10 points from a possible 12 to record their best start to a Premier League season in 29 years – after an off day.

“His qualities are unbounded and he is a goalscoring winger and there are not many around. He is one of the best finishing wingers I’ve seen,” said Howe.

“Quality goalscoring wingers are few and far between and as long as he stays fit he is going to be a key player for us this season.”

Howe was also pleased with the way his side bounced back from going behind and struggling to get back into the match.

“It was a strange game because I thought for 20 minutes we were in total control and then we lost that control and Wolves scored and we had a difficult last 25 minutes of the half.

“That has fallen in line with the other games where we have played well in passages.

“What shines through today again is the ability to find a way to win from a losing position, which we haven’t done regularly enough.

“We can get better but it was a step forward.”

Wolves boss Gary O’Neil felt his side deserved more from the game after playing well for a long period.

“Frustration (is the feeling) I think,” he said.

“There was an awful lot of of good in it but two moments have cost us points, one unfortunate and one really disappointing but lots of good in there.

“But we are here for results and we didn’t managed to get one.”

Wolves have got only one point from four matches, although three of those have been against Arsenal, Chelsea and Newcastle.

O’Neil said: “My job is to see things really clearly and I saw a team which stuck together, produced an awful lot of quality and went toe-to-toe with a team which is going to be higher up in the league than us.

“I know we had a few issues at the start but from that moment until maybe three minutes before they get the equaliser I thought we were the better side for a long spell – but we don’t have anything to show for it.”