Wolves boss Mick McCarthy today declared he would relish a repeat of the feisty clash with Newcastle on Saturday.

This weekend sees the first meeting of the sides since the fiercely-contested 1-1 draw in August when there were 12 bookings, seven of which went to Wolves.

With tackles flying in, the game quickly gained notoriety, fuelled by Match of the Day running a montage of some seven challenges on Newcastle’s controversial midfielder Joey Barton.

It also unwittingly bec-ame the catalyst for the national media to brand Wolves ‘dirty’ after they had another seven players booked the following game at Fulham, whose striker Bobby Zamora suffered a broken leg.

But many fans thought the match was one of the best seen at Molineux in a long time, including Mc-Carthy, who would love a similar ‘blood and thunder’ showdown at St James’.

“I would relish a game of football exactly the same,” said the boss.

Since the teams last met, both have lost their main strikers for different reasons, with Wolves’ Kevin Doyle out with a knee injury and Newcastle having sold Andy Carroll to Liverpool for £35m .

McCarthy believes Toon boss Alan Pardew’s can’t help but miss Carroll.

“It’s bound to affect you losing someone like that. He’d scored 11 goals for them this season.They’ll be conscious of trying to prove they don’t need him, but you sell somebody for £35m – God above, it’s got to be a loss,” added McCarthy.

By TIM NASH