One of the weekend’s most attractive fixtures for me – Wolves vs Newcastle at Molineux – Saturday Oct 28th, 17.30 kick-off.

Two extremely capable sides on their day, but arguably just lacking that edge of consistency that helps separate the hopefuls from the eventual trophy-lifters.

The Geordies arrive smarting from a home Champions League defeat, while Wolves are on a decent little trot in the PL having beaten Manchester City at home last month. 

Let’s build a bet, enjoy what should be a cracking match, and fingers crossed that we come up with some inspired stuff.

Our #PickYourPunt – 6/1

#PickYourPunt @ 6/1

Not the most leg-intensive acca/bet builder known to man. Or woman. But a couple of little elements that for me have a bright chance of landing, which is the main thing. This is a very interesting clash in my book, and comes at an opportune time perhaps for Wolves.

Team goals – Wolves over 1.5 

Cards on the table; history points to a low-scoring draw. 1-1 has been the scoreline of choice between these two on many recent occasions. Newcastle meanwhile are highly adept at keeping clean sheets. Wolves to score 2 or more, then – madness, I hear you cry!

Not so in my view. Wolves are only just finding their feet with new boss Gary O’Neil. However – don’t forget how good they were at Old Trafford at the season’s start. Only Derren Brown knows how they failed to win that one – and we’ve already mentioned the home triumph against the champions.

Cunha was fantastic at OT – and the speed deployed against City on the counter was breathtaking. Pedro Neto looked jet-propelled, and can give Newcastle every bit as much trouble on Saturday.

Wolves have only scored 11 Premier League goals thus far, and Newcastle have one of the meanest defences in the league – BUT the men in old gold popped a couple past City and the Geordies have that CL defeat at home to Dortmund to get over.

It will have been a huge, draining, emotional evening on Tyneside as the faithful, and doubtless the players, hoped for an imperious PSG repeat. It wasn’t forthcoming.

Wolves are rested, and have a 2-1 away win at Brentford last week fresh in the memory. For me this represents a fantastic chance for Wolves to craft a performance that could well win this match – but at any rate, for the purposes of our bet, hit the back of the Newcastle net at least twice. More might be fanciful, but two is definitely achievable for me.

Player cards – Joelinton to receive a card

I remember when this guy was a rather disappointing, goal-shy forward. Square peg, round hole – or something like that. Then a flash of genius – a complete reinvention of the 27-yr-old Brazilian as a midfield force to be reckoned with.

This is his fifth PL campaign and though the goals never really materialised he’s an industrious, skilful and integral part of an engine-room that’s helped propel Newcastle to their present position, challenging the elite.

One observation I’d make after that glowing and warranted observation is that he treads very close to the line in terms of, shall we say, the midfield battleground. I recall the EFL Cup match against Manchester City at St James’ in September. How on earth he wasn’t booked for any one of several ultra-robust challenges is a mystery up there with anything Jessica Fletcher ever had to contend with.

Wolves’ speed in transition, their breaking pace, will test his powers of resistance to the max for me, and I can see him potentially resorting to the so-called ‘professional’ foul (has anything ever been more ridiculously named – it’s not professional. It’s just wrong). Players do it, ‘take one for the team,’ and old pros line up to applaud and nod, sagely.

If it was an automatic red card offence it would be eradicated in weeks, but hey. My view. Joelinton is no more or less likely to do it – almost everyone seems to on occasion – and the game’s the poorer for it in my opinion. Anyway – potentially for this, or if some of those robust challenges are flying around again, I can see a card coming his way.

This is a cracking matchup, and the even money about Wolves or the Draw (Double Chance market) is well worth a punt too. I can see them getting something from this – they are far better than their league position suggests ,and I believe they will confirm that on Saturday, early evening.