Two teams staffed for the most part with yeoman Englishmen produced a blood-and-guts scrap that was a throwback to the sepia-tinted days when both clubs were in their pomp. There were 12 bookings, and some reports made it sound like armageddon, but that was more over the top than any of the tackles.

Significantly, neither manager had any complaints, nor did any of the combatants, bar one. Joey Barton is often at odds with the world, and Saturday was no exception. More interesting to dwell on than the physical aspect of the contest was the contribution of Newcastle’s latest No9, Andy Carroll, who is following in famous footsteps and making a promising fist of it. Carroll scored with a towering header of which Alan Shearer would have been proud [he indicated as much on Match of the Day], and was acclaimed on both sides as an England centre-forward of the not-too-distant future. Karl Henry’s comments on the subject were typical.

The Wolves captain said: “Newcastle are a good side, and Carroll especially. I watched the Man United game where he seemed to bully [Nemanja] Vidic every time he was near him. He gave us as tough a time as any striker has, and if he keeps playing like this I don’t think it will be long before he’s doing it for England.”

Newcastle made the more cohesive start but Kevin Nolan, a midfielder filling in as Carroll’s partner, failed to take a couple of chances in the role Chris Hughton envisages for Robbie Keane. The manager said there was no update on his attempt to sign Keane from Tottenham.

Reprieved, Wolves clawed their way into it, with Henry bruisingly influential in midfield, and took the lead with a smart finish from the renascent Sylvan Ebanks-Blake. The former England Under-21s striker was prolific at Championship level, with Plymouth as well as Wolves, but hit a brick wall on his arrival in the Premier League last season, when he managed only two goals in 23 appearances.

He has equalled that return already this time and looked the part on Saturday, when he might have had a second with a close-range header that shivered a post. Goals apart, the match was notable chiefly for the battering taken by Barton, whose suspect temperament was tested at every opportunity by Henry and company. Had he been singled out for special treatment? Mick McCarthy would not admit as much, but it was an unmistakable impression.Henry said: “If you’re talking about Barton, he seems to think he’s a bit of a player who puts his foot in, but I certainly didn’t see any of that from him, not on the ball, not when the ball was there to be won. That’s a big part of my game, I love getting stuck in, I enjoy those games, it was a big battle in there, I look forward to them.

”I knew with [Alan] Smith and Barton it was going to be a physical battle, and we were certainly up for it as much as they were. I spoke to Smith a few times during the game. I’ve got a lot of time for him, he was saying: ‘Well done, good battle.’ He loves a tackle. He loves getting tackled as much as he tackles. I’m very much the same.” Barton was different. “He was moaning in the ref’s ear all the time and not happy about getting put to the floor. There was a lot of talk, a lot of moaning. Not a lot to back it up, though. His bark is worse than his bite. We’ll have more of the same when we go up to their place.”

Man of the match: Andy Carroll (Newcastle United)

Premier LeagueWolverhampton WanderersNewcastle UnitedJoe Lovejoyguardian.co.uk

• Home side booed off after Wolves nearly snatch win
• ‘One point from two games not good enough’ – Mikel Arteta

Everton’s rich history is now told in a continuous seam of panels around Goodison Park, from their formation in 1878 to the present day. 2011, they hope, will record the first trophy of David Moyes’s reign and a season befitting the club’s finest squad since the 1987 panel showing Kevin Ratcliffe with the league title. So far it would simply read: ‘another false start’.

The ‘Everton Timeline’ – as it is called – is certainly effective, as collisions between fans with their eyes fixed sideways and general astonishment at the inclusion of a picture of Nick Barmby testified on Saturday. The Everton team is not. Early days, of course, yet already Moyes’s side are struggling with the weight of expectation and have only themselves to blame for trailing the leading pack once again.

Frustration is settling in on the campaign where under-achievement will be less tolerated. “Two games and only one point is not good enough for us,” Mikel Arteta admitted. “We need to start winning and getting points because there are big teams ahead of us who are winning.”

By contrast Wolves are progressing according to plan. Mick McCarthy spent big this summer in the context of Molineux’s recent history and in comparison with many Premier League peers. He was without two players acquired to push Wolves further away from trouble this season, Steven Fletcher and Stephen Hunt, but that target looked comfortably attainable without them here.

That McCarthy’s team were well-drilled, unyielding and resilient was no surprise to Everton, who dominated first-half possession but lacked the guile or finishing touch to make immediate amends for their opening day defeat at Ewood Park. But they were subdued far too easily by Wolves’ desire to take the game to their hosts after the break.

The introduction of the Algeria international midfielder Adlène Guedioura for George Elokobi, the left-back, gave Karl Henry the added bite required to wrest control of midfield. Indeed the visitors rightly sensed victory once Sylvan Ebanks-Blake converted a fine counterattack to equalise with 15 minutes remaining. Only desperate blocks on Matthew Jarvis by Everton’s central defenders, Sylvain Distin and Phil Jagielka, prevented their second successive 2-1 win.

McCarthy, who blamed himself for Wolves’ first-half retreat, said: “We could have been out of sight in the first half but we defended really well in front of Marcus Hahnemann. Marcus didn’t have much to do but the back four, the midfield and the front two were all bollocksed with all the work they had to do.”

Everton’s performance petered out towards the inevitable boos on the final whistle. Whether injury-plagued, fully fit, complete with new signings or soldiering on without, they have struggled to hit the ground settled or running under Moyes. With Aston Villa and Manchester United to come in the Premier League, they needed another of their belligerent responses to keep this season’s aspirations intact.

The sum total of their dominance in the opening period was a sliced Diniyar Bilyaletdinov shot, a save by Hahnemann from Johnny Heitinga, a close shave from Steven Pienaar and, finally, after the referee Lee Mason somehow failed to award a penalty for a foul by Stephen Ward on Arteta, a scrambled goal from Tim Cahill from the subsequent free-kick. Controversy surrounded both goals, with Wolves appealing for a foul by Cahill on Jody Craddock and Everton likewise when Guedioura caught Heitinga in a 50-50 challenge before Ebanks-Blake levelled.

It was instructive that Moyes refused to give the benefit of the doubt to his players, preferring instead to question Heitinga’s commitment to the tackle and the lazy loss of possession by Louis Saha that demonstrated why he was demoted to the bench in the first place. The Everton manager said: “We were on the attack but we got involved in overdoing it with one-touch passes. We shouldn’t have had to make the tackle but I still would have hoped we’d have come out with the ball.”

The afternoon was uninformative for Fabio Capello, with Phil Jagielka and Leighton Baines subdued and Jack Rodwell strangely left on the bench throughout. In the absence of outstanding homegrown talent it was left to Arteta to admit that, now he is eligible for British citizenship, England is a possibility. “If one day the opportunity comes obviously I would have to consider it very seriously,” said the Spaniard. Not on current form.

Premier LeagueEvertonWolverhampton WanderersAndy Hunterguardian.co.uk