Newcastle extended their unbeaten start to the Premier League season after an impressive 2-1 defeat of Wolves at Molineux and confirmed their best start to a season since 1995/96.
The Magpies left it late however and needed Harvey Barnes' piledriver in the 80th minute to take all three points back to the Northeast.
Having gone a goal down through Mario Lemina's cool finish in the 36th minute, Newcastle fought back with a deflected effort from Fabian Schar to level things up after 75 minutes.
But the winner was yet to come and up stepped half-time substitute Barnes to seal all three points.
It was a stunning strike from the 27 year-old but for many Irish fans watching at home, the goal was eerily reminiscent of Irelands defeat to Greece on Tuesday night.
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Doherty's Lax Defending Glaringly Obvious In Newcastle Winner
Irish fans interest in the game was drastically improved when International Matt Doherty came off the bench in the 77th minute.
Having performed below par in Heimir Hallgrímsson's opening pair of matches, fans were hoping a return to club action may reinvigorate the form of the Dublin native.
It wasn't to be however, as three minutes after Doherty's introduction Harvey Barnes picked up the ball and shrugged off Doherty's attempted challenge before firing in the match winner.
Harvey Barnes, that is SENSATIONAL! 🤯 pic.twitter.com/VpM9nx03TT
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) September 15, 2024
For Irish fans, there was a feeling of deja vu after watching Doherty's half-hearted recovery run before Greece's second goal last week.
Stephen Kelly was highly critical of Doherty following the Tuesday nights goal, speaking on RTÉ's coverage it frustrated the former Irish international massively:
This is awful. This is awful. Matt Doherty is tracking his runner and he just stops.
What’s worse about it is the jog back.
You cannot legislate for a player jogging.
RTÉ soccer analyst Stephen Kelly was highly critical of Matt Doherty's defending for the second Greek goal in Ireland's 2-0 defeat at the Aviva Stadium. #RTEsoccer pic.twitter.com/ZrqMNYdtGn
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) September 10, 2024
Doherty's performances have been attracting criticism from all angles of late and todays winner will only fuel talk about the full-backs form.
Matt Doherty doing the nonchalant jogging gimmick for club too pic.twitter.com/B5sTfZn3UU https://t.co/LGlgRq8G7Y
— Luke 🇮🇪 (@LukeUTD_) September 15, 2024
Matt Doherty jogging on the treadmill again https://t.co/R4TzQYvCkI
— Pad web (@paddy_webster) September 15, 2024
Although fans of the Boys In Green are hoping to forget about the most recent International break, todays winning goal may bring back some bad memories of the week just gone.
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