It is always dangerous to read too much into pre-season friendlies, of course, particularly against non-league opposition. However, Eddie Howe will have taken a lot from Newcastle United's 5-1 win against Gateshead on Saturday.
Nick Pope, Sven Botman, Fabian Schar, Bruno Guimaraes and Chris Wood may not have been introduced just yet, following the internationals' extended break, but Howe still got to look at 21 players after fielding an almost completely different XI in each half. In fact, only centre-back Kell Watts, who had a productive loan spell at Wigan last season, completed a full 90 minutes in the behind-closed-doors clash at Newcastle's training ground.
The intensity in which Watts and his team-mates played with pleased Howe, who hates to even lose a pre-season friendly, and Newcastle cut loose as Gateshead tired late on, scoring three goals in the final 10 minutes. Yes, the opposition has to be taken into account, but Newcastle have been working on hitting teams on the break from a compact shape in training this past week and that work was evident late on.
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The sight of Allan Saint-Maximin releasing the ball at the right time in the build-up to Newcastle's fourth and fifth goals from Miguel Almiron and Sean Longstaff was striking. So too was Almiron's renewed belief and the conviction the Paraguay international finished with for both of his goals in the second half. Neither development should necessarily come as a huge surprise given the work Howe and his staff have done with the pair and the team as a whole since taking charge.
"You saw a couple of great counter-attacks at the end and there could have been more so we showed a ruthless side right at the end of that game," Howe told NUFC TV. "I'd have loved us to show that a bit earlier, but it came and when it came, we showed we can be a really potent force."
For all the positives, tellingly, Howe was 'disappointed' with the one goal Newcastle conceded - Paul Blackett's smart finish midway through the second half - and 'another couple of moments where we need to tighten up'. Imagine if the Magpies had lost as they did against non-league opposition a year ago?
There were only 11 survivors from that 1-0 defeat at York City involved against Gateshead and Saturday's game was another reminder of how much has changed at the club since that afternoon at the LNER Community Stadium. Even Yoshinori Muto featured that day.
The result is always irrelevant in these games but, in similarly hot conditions, the Magpies laboured against a York outfit five divisions below them in the football pyramid. What was quickly apparent was, for all of Newcastle's huff and puff, Steve Bruce's side lacked a cutting edge in a real contrast to the friendly against Gateshead a year later. As Bruce admitted, himself, after the game, 'if you don’t play with the intensity and the speed and the pace you normally do, then you get frustrating afternoons like we’ve just had'.
More than anything, there was just a different feel in the air. Newcastle had not made any signings - Joe Willock was ultimately the only 'new' arrival days before the new season started - and Bruce's side failed to build on the momentum generated following a strong finish to the previous campaign. That certainly won't be the case this time around.
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