SO much for Miguel Almiron being out of form then. Newcastle’s leading goalscorer might have found himself dropped to the bench for the opening 68 minutes of yesterday’s game with Wolves, but that did not prevent him from emerging as the pivotal figure as the Magpies claimed their first win in six league games.

The Paraguayan was ushered on for Allan Saint-Maximin shortly before Newcastle were pegged back through Hwang Hee-Chan’s equaliser at St James’ Park, and duly responded in the best possible fashion as he stroked home his 11th goal of the season to secure a welcome success that lifted Eddie Howe’s side back above Liverpool into fifth position.

Almiron rounded off a polished one-two with Joe Willock with the type of composed finish that has become his trademark this season, with Newcastle’s victory ending any talk of a wobble after a run of three successive defeats.

The Magpies were deserved winners despite the defensive aberration involving Kieran Trippier and Nick Pope that enabled Hwang to cancel out Alexander Isak’s first-half header, with their attacking intensity ultimately proving too much for their opponents, who displayed more than enough quality to suggest they should finish comfortably clear of the bottom three.

Newcastle continue to target the top four, and with Friday’s trip to Nottingham Forest preceding the international break, the Magpies can attack the final two months of the season with renewed relish.

Isak will hope to be a pivotal figure in the games that remain, and while Howe had held off starting with the Swede ahead of Callum Wilson for a number of weeks, the Magpies head coach finally decided yesterday that the time was right for a change. On the evidence of Isak’s display in the opening hour-or-so, Wilson might now have to bide his time to reclaim his place.

Handed only his sixth league start of the season, Isak was everything Wilson had not been in the previous couple of months – bright, energetic and constantly looking to dart in behind the opposition defence.

Less than five minutes had gone when he was imploring the St James’ Park crowd to get behind him as he hassled Max Kilman, and his energy and enthusiasm set the tone for a Newcastle display that gradually grew in intensity as the game wore on.

Admittedly, the Magpies had a major left-off in the 20th minute, with Pope miscontrolling a back-pass from Sven Botman and enabling Raul Jimenez to nip in ahead of him to steal the ball. Pope threw himself at the Mexican to try to rectify the damage, but while Jimenez went down in the area, contact was deemed to be minimal, and potentially initiated by the Wolves striker, and play was waved on. It was a close call though, and given what had happened when Pope erred against Liverpool in Newcastle’s previous home game, hearts were certainly in mouths.

It was a crucial moment as, just six minutes later, Isak was heading home to break the deadlock and claim his fourth goal of the campaign. The opener could hardly have been any simpler, with Trippier floating over a free-kick from the right and Isak outjumping the entire Wolves defence before glancing home a header from eight yards.

Isak was involved again moments later, tearing down the left before slotting over a cross that resulted in Willock firing a deflected shot wide, and a fired-up Newcastle came within inches of adding a second ten minutes before the break.

Dan Burn kept Trippier’s corner alive as he hooked the ball back across goal at the far post, and Bruno Guimaraes smacked a header against the crossbar from the edge of the six-yard box.

It was far from one-way traffic, however, and after Pope was called into action to parry Jimenez’s long-range strike, Wolves also struck the woodwork shortly before half-time. Daniel Podence cut in from the left-hand side, but while his low 20-yard strike beat Pope, the ball rebounded off the base of the left-hand post.

Pope had another nervy moment at the start of the second half, with Jimenez charging down his attempted clearance, but the Magpies goalkeeper came to his side’s rescue shortly before the hour mark. Pedro Neto fired in a shot after a free-kick was rolled into his path, but Pope parried the ball away.

Jose Sa was a central figure at the other end moments later, clawing away a Trippier free-kick that was creeping inside the right-hand post, before Pope was called into action again for Newcastle as the action ebbed and flowed from end to the other.

Trippier could only head Ruben Neves’ cross into the path of Joao Moutinho, but Pope got down superbly to keep out the Portuguese midfielder’s low strike.

Six minutes later, however, and Trippier and Pope were once again involved in the incident that resulted in Wolves levelling the scores.

The appeared to be very little danger when a scrambled Wolves attack ended in Jimenez deflecting the ball towards Pope. The Magpies goalkeeper looked ready to collect possession, but a panicked Trippier stuck out a foot in front of him and stabbed the ball towards Hwang.

The Wolves substitute had only been on the pitch for two minutes, and was left with the simple task of slotting home. Trippier has done an awful lot of very good things this season, but this was a bad lapse of judgement from the England international.

Thankfully, it was not the only occasion on which a substitute found the back of the net. Nine minutes after being pegged back by Hwang’s goal, Newcastle reclaimed the lead thanks to a wonderfully-composed finish from one of their own replacements.

Almiron’s one-two with Willock left him with a shooting opportunity on the right of the box, and he curled an excellent strike into the far corner.