Newcastle United suffered a humiliating 8-0 defeat in their friendly against the A-League All Stars on Friday.
Despite only finishing the Premier League season on Sunday, the Magpies immediately jetted off to Australia for an exhibition against Tottenham in which both sides fielded full-strength XIs. Newcastle won that match on penalties following a 1-1 draw with goals from James Maddison and Alexander Isak.
Friday saw Eddie Howe field a very different side, with back-up goalkeeper Mark Gillespie the only player over the age of 22 to feature and Kieran Trippier, Lewis Hall and Elliot Anderson all remaining unused substitutes.
Young Newcastle side thrashed by A-League All Stars
Despite fielding a starting XI with an average age of just 21.2 years old, Newcastle will still be somewhat embarrassed by their showing in Melbourne.
The Magpies found themselves a goal down within just four minutes thanks to a strike from Wellington Phoenix midfielder Benjamin Old, with Nicolas Milanovic (Western Sydney Wanderers) and A-League top scorer Adam Taggert (Perth Glory) making it 3-0 by half-time.
It looked as if Newcastle had settled into the match after the break but in the 62nd minute, the floodgates opened again. Apostolos Stamatelopoulos (Newcastle Jets) scored two goals in 12 minutes to make it 5-0 by the 74th minute, while further late strikes from Jake Hollman (Macarthur FC), Jordan Courtney-Perkins (Sydney FC) and Bulgaria international Bozhidar Kraev (Wellington Phoenix) completed the rout.
Predictably, social media didn’t hold back with their reaction to Friday’s result…
We want to play against you. We have similar levels ? ??
— San Marino Fútbol ?? (@SanMarinoTeam) May 24, 2024
Close game, could’ve went either way
— ???? (@Evun_) May 24, 2024
Pretty embarrassing and possibly disrespectful to field a team as we have. Granted we have alot of players needing rest. Our youth contingent are way off and sad for our aussie fans having to witness that
— Simon ???? (@tashhqx) May 24, 2024
I kept my son off school today to watch this lads, he’s now crying and asking where Paul Dummett is. His mam’s going to kill me when she comes in. Cheers.
— Martin (@megamarvatron) May 24, 2024
The future is bright
— KVRT (@imkvrt) May 24, 2024
The outcome of Friday’s match will be particularly painful given the criticism Newcastle have endured following their decision to head down under so quickly after a long Premier League season.
“Can you imagine if you’re a player who is playing in either the Copa America or Euro 2024 having to do that? Madness. Crazy,” club legend Alan Shearer said on BBC’s Match of the Day (via ABC).
Even club captain Kieran Trippier wasn’t shy in giving his opinion of the trip.
“It’s not ideal because it’s a tournament year,” he said. “I understand why the club are doing it. I’ve done it at Tottenham and [Atletico] Madrid but from my own experience of it, in a tournament year it’s not ideal.”