WILSON’S KING OF THE CASTLE

Goal from nowhere crowns first point for new regime as Toon stifle Palace

NEWCASTLE chairman Yasir AlRumayyan met the Queen last week. Proof, if it were needed, that the club’s new Saudi-led regime has friends in high places.

But this point at the Palace owed everything to His Majesty Callum Wilson. The striker’s genius has long since masked his side’s deficiencies elsewhere on the park, and a change of boss has not shifted that dependency just yet.

Wilson only needs one chance to salvage a result barely deserved. Or, in this case, one half chance.

The Expected Goals boffins were hardly chalking it up as a 1.0 when, on 63 minutes, the ball dropped to the frontman with his back to the target near the penalty spot. A 0.1, more like.

Would he lay it off to a team-mate? Given their shooting accuracy this season, you would sooner trust a piranha with your finger.

Instead, he decided on what only he knew was the best route to goal — even if it appeared the most unlikely to everyone else inside Selhurst Park — hooking back over his shoulder into the top corner for a stunning equaliser.

Graeme Jones, Newcastle caretaker following the sacking of Steve Bruce this week, said: ‘The goal is right up there with ones I’ve seen from Newcastle No9s, especially when it’s my first goal as interim manager.

‘Cal is a unique striker. He’s a good finisher in training. But on matchday there is a stimulation, something that comes out to perform for Newcastle United.

‘He’s the best matchday finisher I’ve worked with. It was not even half a chance and it’s in the back of the net.’

Jones would have taken a draw before kick-off. And he would have certainly settled for a point on 87 minutes when Christian Benteke looked to have headed his second of the game. VAR correctly intervened and Newcastle held on for a result that at least stops the rot of two straight defeats.

Co-owner Amanda Staveley spent much of the second half, it seemed, looking at her phone. Maybe she was following events at Goodison, where Rafa Benitez — the man she would have loved to return as manager — was on the end of a 5-2 defeat by Watford.

Whoever it is they appoint, there is much work to be done to keep this team in the Premier League. Jones, though, believes this was ground zero.

‘It’s a base from which to start,’ he added. ‘I would like us to be better on the ball, but that doesn’t come overnight. It takes time. ‘I tried to shore it up a bit and not concede as many goals. I think that worked today. Tactically, I thought we were excellent, especially defensively. There is loads of work to do but it’s somewhere to start. Don’t forget, Callum needs defensive solidity for his contribution to count.’

For Newcastle to persist with the same instruction as under Bruce and expect a different outcome would have been insane, as goes the oft-used cliche. But it is also true.

This was certainly different, an unsightly but ever-so-gradual improvement. They saw little of the ball but were more solid with it in the first half, a throwback to the early days of Benitez. It meant that Palace, despite seeing 80 per cent possession before half-time, finished with an XG less than Newcastle at the break. Both sides, in effect, had one chance of note. Newcastle’s arrived first when Wilson nodded down for Emil Krafth and his hook was blocked on the line by Marc Guehi. Had it been Krafth nodding down for Wilson then it would have been a goal.

At the other end, Benteke headed against the post in what should have served as a warning for Newcastle, given the ease with which he peeled free at the far post.

It was one they did not heed and, on 56 minutes, Benteke again bullied the visiting centre backs and climbed over Ciaran Clark to glance into the bottom corner from Tyrick Mitchell’s delivery.

The scorer then headed against the crossbar not long after the hour as Newcastle threatened their customary collapse. But this was a game-plan built on the hope that Wilson would get one sniff and he was the toast of the Toon Army after again turning water into wine following a game of pinball from a corner.

It was a reprieve for the Magpies but one they seemed certain to squander as Palace dominated in the closing stages. Newcastle held on and Palace remain on one win under Patrick Vieira, despite another decent display.

‘We did enough for three points,’ he said. ‘I’m frustrated. We can’t say we’ve been unlucky all the time.’

Newcastle, by contrast, are lucky to have Wilson.