Newcastle United rounded off their pre-season preparations with a 1-0 win over Stade Brest, seeing the club lift the Sela Cup for the second year running.
The afternoon started with Newcastle Women taking AC Milan to penalties (which Wor Lasses won!) after a 2-2 draw in normal times before the Men took on Brest – who finished third in Ligue 1 last season – in the 4pm kick-off at St James’ Park.
Harvey Barnes opened the scoring with a lovely first-half finish set up by Lloyd Kelly and Will Osula showed what he was all about up top with his unique mixture of pace, presence, hold up play and movement in behind, with the offside flag denying what would’ve been a lovely debut goal for the 21-year-old striker who signed from Sheffield United earlier this week.
The game fizzled out slightly in the second half, but the French side were competitive throughout and made us work for our clean sheet as we joined the Women in retaining the Sela Cup for another year ahead of next Saturday’s opener at home to Southampton.
One worry was Fabian Schar, who looked assure for 82 minutes before hobbling off after struggling to recover from what appeared to be a whack to his Achilles. With the new season just seven days away and the squad already light on fit centre-backs, it would be a nightmare to lose Schar and add urgency to our pursuit of Crystal Palace’s Marc Guehi.
As expected, Eddie Howe picked an entirely different XI for this one, seeing new signings Osula and Kelly start and first-team regulars Bruno Guimaraes, Kieran Trippier, Joe Willock and Miguel Almiron also return to the side.
Elsewhere, Howe handed a rare start to forgotten left-back Jamal Lewis, while 18-year-old Alfie Harrison – signed from Man City earlier this year – started in midfield, with the bench full of U21 talents hoping to take their chance.
STARTING 11: Dubravka – Trippier (c), Schar, Kelly, Lewis – Harrison, Bruno, Willock – Almiron, Osula, Barnes.
SUBS: Vlachodimos, Gillespie, Ashby, Heffernan, Stanton, Hernes, Emerson, Munda, Sanusi, Shahar.
Sandro Tonali (ineligible) missed out once again, with other absentees (aside from those who played yesterday) including Callum Wilson (back), Lewis Miley (foot), Sven Botman (ACL), Jamaal Lascelles (ACL), Matt Targett (Achilles), Alex Murphy (hip), Joe White (back) and Garang Kuol (knee).
Two minutes in, we immediately saw a glimpse of what Osula can offer. The 6ft 4′ striker came short to link the play, spun straight after his lay-off and used his pace to make a darting run in behind. Almiron found him with a through ball down the right and the big man fired a decent effort at Bizot.
Almiron then burst through middle of park moments later. He had options left and right but took the shot on from the edge of the box, which was a little weak and went narrowly wide.
Barnes headed wide after a decent ball from Miggy but soon showed his class with a trademark finish on 15 minutes. Kelly picked him out with another impressive piece of distribution and the former Leicester star cut in, worked the space and curled a right-footed shot into the far corner. 1-0 Newcastle!
Willock almost made it 2-0 after some great pressing and poor Brest defending, only for his low shot to be fired straight at the Brest stopper. Bruno then headed over from Trippier’s inviting free kick delivery as we went close again to scoring a second.
Osula then had a goal disallowed for offside. He showed great pace and more lively movement to get in behind, gathered the ball well and finished confidently, only for the linesman’s flag to deny him. Again, though, it was another promising moments for our new £10m man.
Early chances aside, Brest were far more competitive than the Girona side that couldn’t cope with us last night. After a good block from Kelly to deny the visitors, the former Bournemouth defender was guilty of a poor giveaway, but was bailed out by Dubravka who did well to hold Jonas Martin’s curling effort that looked destined for the top corner.
Howe made two changes at the break, seeing Trevan Sanusi come on in Harrison’s place for another 45-minute cameo, while Greek stopper Odysseas Vlachodimos also replaced Dubravka in goal. The latter was called into action immediately and made a good save, tipping Brest’s edge of the box effort wide.
There was a penalty shout waved away moments later as Barnes went down in the box, then we saw Vlachodimos’ play sweeper-keeper soon after with a decisive piece of goalkeeping to cut out Brest’s dangerous ball in behind.
It was a slightly slow and flat start to the second half. Sanusi’s confidence on the ball is really encouraging, but showed the naivety of youth when attempting to take on two men midway inside our own half and ran into trouble. I love how direct and tricky he is, but you just know Eddie Howe will be telling him to cut that out after the game!
The crowd were then entertained by some Bruno trickery, as the Brazilian pulled off a Maradona spin inside his own box to break away after a dangerous Brest attack. The bloke really can do it all, with his piece of silky skill waking up the crowd with half an hour left to play.
Howe then made two more changes with just over 20 minutes remaining, as the lively Osula and captain Trippier replaced by Norwegian talent Travis Hernes and young right-back Harrison Ashby, who is back on Tyneside and likely to go out on loan after a spell at Swansea last season.
Kelly showed his class again to sweep up a dangerous ball in behind with minimal fuss, then Schar made a brilliant tackle to stop Brest getting in behind. He was hurt in the process and went down holding his Achilles, having done superbly to stop the Ligue 1 side getting a shot away as they burst into the box.
Thankfully, Schar was fine to continue but only for five minutes, as he went down again after treatment. He was replaced by U21 talent Ellis Stanton and will hopefully be fine, but it’s the last thing we wanted to see right now.
With just two minutes left to play, England U18 midfielder Anthony Munda replaced Joe Willock, who will benefit from 88 minutes in the tank after a lack of pre-season cost him early this time last year. A solid win, another clean sheet, promising home debuts for Osula, Kelly and Vlachodimos, but we’ll have to hope Schar’s knock is nothing to worry about.
Next up for Eddie’s Mags, a week of training and hopefully a signing or two before we face Southampton next Saturday in our opening game of the 2024/25 Premier League season.
