纽卡素国王 - 2008-7-27 11:17:00
Doncaster Rovers 1 Newcastle 0 Newcastle made their first-ever trip to the Keepmoat Stadium of Doncaster Rovers today in scorching conditions but the weather was the day's only bright spot.
A goal from Stuart Elliott (not the former Mag) with three minutes to go won the game for Rovers while our defence played statues.
It was an absolutely awful performance from our purple-clad rabble, even given that it was a friendly in July with a number of absentees.
Last week's hat-trick man, Damien Duff could barely cross the halfway line and our front pairing of Shola Ameobi and Alan Smith were just embarrassing, barely Championship standard.
And wearing 46 in defence was Sebastien Bassong, on trial from Metz, which obviously caught out a fair few Toon fans.
Revisiting the Brian Pinas "Wotsie" episode at Birmingham in 1997, Newcastle fans sang, "There's only one 46" and "46 give us a wave".
Bassong didn't respond, being French he probably had no idea what they were on about....
There was little else to distract the away following in a desperate first 45 minutes.
Tim Krul replaced Steve Harper after 57 minutes and at that point Newcastle still hadn't managed a shot on target.
David Edgar came on for Cacapa some minutes later and went to right back with Steven Taylor reverting to the centre of defence.
After 73 minutes a lame effort straight at the 'keeper from Ameobi became our first real effort on goal. Five minutes later Ben Tozer replaced Geremi.
Krul made two reasonable stops to keep it scoreless but our lot could only be described as abject as they succumbed to the late sucker punch from Elliott.
The continued absence of Jonas Gutierrez ended up being the main talking point - a triallist was eligible while someone we have paraded as a new signing remains not so. Very odd.
Lord knows we needed him....
NUFC: Harper (Krul 57), Taylor, Enrique, Cacapa (Edgar 64), Bassong, N'Zogbia, Duff, Guthrie, Geremi (Tozer 78), Ameobi, Smith.
Crowd: tbc including Sir Bobby Robson.
无论怎么样，这也是说明了纽卡现时的情况，哎，很不乐观啊，半主力加新人的阵容踢得如此难堪
纽卡素国王 - 2008-8-3 11:00:00
Hertha Berlin 1 Newcastle 0
Newcastle suffered a second successive 1-0 defeat in their pre-season preparations, as hopes of a meaningless trophy success nose-dived in Spain.
Hertha Berlin had been in UEFA Cup action just over 24 hours before facing the Magpies, but in front of a sparse crowd, the Bundesliga side found little to worry them from Kevin Keegan's toothless team.
With strike trio Viduka, Martins and Owen all absent, it was left to Ameobi and Smith to provide an attacking threat, which they singularly failed to do - save for Shola's miscued shot wide of the goal in the opening seconds.
Debutant Jonas Gutierrez (pictured) returned to his former home of the Son Moix and showed some good touches in the first half, tracking back and working down both flanks.
An early injury to 'keeper Christian Fielder forced Hertha into a substitution, but it was deep into the second half when replacement Jaroslav Drobny saw any action.
At that point substitute Damien Duff made a run down the right and eluded a series of challenges, but was unable to add to his pre-season goal tally with an 18 yard effort that was straight at the 'keeper.
Other than that, we badly lacked a cutting edge and with midfield creativity at a premium and set pieces ragged, a breakthrough never looked likely.
With the tie apparently set for penalties, Hertha broke forward and substitute Maximuliam Nicu beat sub 'keeper Tim Krul with a simple close range header to win it.
Doubtless the usual noises about a good workout in difficult conditions will appear, but aside from the missing players, our lack of a midfield playmaker was evident.
In the night's other game, Mallorca beat Hanover 4-2.
Team: Harper (Krul 63), Geremi, Taylor, Cacapa, N'Zogbia, Butt, Guthrie, Milner, Gutierrez (Enrique 70), Smith, Ameobi (Duff 59).
Subs n/u: Edgar, Danquah, Tozer, Doninger, Donaldson, Godsmark, Bassong.
Hertha: Fielder (Drobny 12), Bezarra, Von Bergen, Chahed, Cicero, Pantelic, Caetano, Stein, De Lima, Arguez (Nicu 73), Lustenberger (Haartmann 66).
Subs n/u: Lakic, Domovchyski, Bigalke, Fardi.