Harvey Barnes’ brilliant strike completed Newcastle’s late turnaround as they won their first Premier League match at Wolves since 2011 with a 2-1 victory.
With 15 minutes remaining the visitors were trailing to Mario Lemina’s first-half goal and looked to have run out of ideas after Eddie Howe’s triple half-time substitution appeared not to have made any difference to a lacklustre performance.
A slice of fortune saw Fabian Schar, returning from a three-match ban, equalise with a 30-yard strike which deflected off the head of Craig Dawson but it was individual brilliance and not luck which brought the winner.
Barnes exchanged passed with fellow substitute Joe Willock and cut inside before curling a superb shot into the top corner as Johnston was beaten for a second time inside three minutes.
The goal extended the Magpies’ unbeaten start to the season, while stretching Wolves’ run to just one league victory in the last 14 games.
However, it was far from convincing and Wolves will feel hard done by as they were the better team for the majority of the game with captain Lemina leading from the front.
The Gabon international was given the armband at the start of the season and his roving role just behind the front line caused the visitors numerous problems after Newcastle’s early promise fizzled out surprisingly quickly.
Striker Alexander Isak posed questions by dropping deep and from one such position he played in Jacob Murphy, whose shot was tipped over by Johnston on his home debut.
Anthony Gordon was Newcastle’s most threatening attacker, however, and almost scored a brilliant individual goal midway through the half when he cut in from the left touchline, easily skipping past Nelson Semedo and Yerson Mosquera before bending a shot around Johnston and off the far post.
But having blunted those attempts Wolves, for whom Matheus Cunha had almost embarrassed Nick Pope by catching him in possession in his own six-yard area, began to enjoy some success of their own.
Cunha and Jean-Richner Bellegarde both had chances but when Joao Gomes intercepted Sean Longstaff’s attempted pass into the Wolves penalty area there was little evidence the opening goal was only seconds away.
Cunha played in Jorgen Strand Larsen down the right wing and while not blessed with great pace neither was his opponent Dan Burn and the Norway international needed only half a yard to fire in a low cross.
The really clever bit came next as Gomes, whose run from deep had not been tracked by Bruno Guimaraes, allowed the ball to roll through his legs and his dummy wrong-footed Schar allowing Lemina to tap home.
He could have doubled his tally after summer signing Andre, on his full debut, launched a counter-attack with a driving run but rushed his shot and bundled wide.
Newcastle boss Eddie Howe was clearly not happy with only the half-time replacement of Isak enforced after he took a blow to the nose just before the break.
Midfielders Joelinton and Longstaff were also hooked as Sandro Tonali, Barnes and Willock were introduced but the tactical changed lessened the effectiveness of Gordon, now the nominal centre forward, and Wolves continued to attack the flank he had caused them problems down in the first half.
Lemina’s clever ball between Burn and Lewis Hall saw Strand Larsen’s snap-shot hit the near post, with Pope also diving to keep out the Norwegian’s low header from another Lemina cross.
Cunha, again from the right after Johnston’s clearance dropped into space, was denied at the near post as Pope struck out a strong left arm.
Schar’s hit and hope sparked Newcastle into life and inspired Barnes to go one better, although it still needed Pope to deny Cunha in added time to secure victory.
