This will definitely be a fine season – Up the Mags | OneFootball

Rights, back again is it?

The friendlies just keep on coming, if you can call it a friendly with the Sela Cup on the line and given the nature of the opposition.

Without disrespecting anyone who’s been involved in previous seasons, this was a stellar visitor for this incarnation of pre-season at St James’ Park.

Enter Atletico Madrid, a bona fide European big gun, recent Spanish Champions, UCL finalists and a club that has developed a connection with this incarnation of Newcastle United.

Lest we forget that, while on his post-Bournemouth sabbatical, Eddie Howe was welcomed to Atleti by Diego Simeone. Legend has it that what Eddie observed during this time was the beginning of the dark arts that Newcastle have deployed so effectively over the past four years, upsetting a few characters along the way in a fashion that would make Uncle Diego very proud.

Atletico’s role in our renaissance didn’t end there though. A few months later, with Eddie now in situ at St James’ they sent us Kieran Trippier, who flipped the dressing room narrative, banged in a couple of free kicks against Everton and Villa to get us out of the drop zone, and the rest is history.

So it was fair to say that this was like welcoming an old friend here, as well as a potential opponent in the upcoming European adventure (a two in eight chance of drawing them from pot two). This was not to be a faint-hearted affair despite this, as the visitors typical blood and thunder approach was offset by the fact Joelinton was in our team.

There have been some issues at centre forward you may have missed, meaning Anthony Gordon was utilised there today and is probably (hopefully) going to stay there at Villa Park. He was industrious and lively, as he has been all pre-season, but chances were at a premium. Other than a couple of classic Joelinton fluffy headers (bar with goal gaping, straight at goalie etc), the only effort of note was a clever free kick from Trippier, who went hard and low instead of going for the postage stamp. He wasn’t fooling Oblak though and half time arrives scoreless.

You’d be forgiven for thinking I was a bit bored (again) but I actually found today to be a canny little event. The sell out crowd on a summer’s day looked terrific, black and white everywhere with the usual healthy smattering of kids and an air of innocence and wide-eyed optimism that this place will beat out of you well before the clocks fall back.

On the pitch, Elanga provided some moments of excitement, creating space in behind with some outrageous skill and exploiting it with equally outrageous pace. We need someone on the end of those balls in though (Ew, I nearly mentioned him there) and the hope has to be that a fully stocked starting XI has a few more shots on target in their locker come next weekend.

This weekend would end in disappointment though, as we would finally lose our two-year grip on the coveted Sela Cup. Botman went off at half-time as scheduled with his minutes still being managed, leaving a pairing of Alex Murphy and Jamal Lascelles that had an air of not-quite-there-yet meets been-there-but-not-anymore. This new pairing got a bit torn apart on the counter, as Almada’s long pass seemed to have sent Baena too wide of the onrushing Pope, but his smart ball back across was turned in at the back post by Alvarez.

Minutes later Alfie Harrison was considerably outnumbered as he lined up to replace Ashby, accompanied by an entire replacement XI emerging from the opposition bench. These were not your typical stiffs it has to be said, as one of them was World Cup winner/leading goalscorer Antoine Griezmann, who came on to score at his favourite football manager ground, latching onto Sorloth’s pass to finish past Pope.

As the game petered out, United may have allowed their thoughts to turn to the imminent Premier League. Disappointing, as a late rally to equalise would have meant a penalty shoot out that I’d have found quite fun.

Instead this off-season had one last anxiety attack for us, as chief striking hope Gordon collapsed in a heap. He ultimately walked off unaided, but alarm bells were ringing as he went straight down the tunnel. Both Howe and the player have settled the nerves a bit with reports of a bang on the ankle, far preferable to the soft tissue issues first feared.

Most people made a beeline for the exits at full-time, but I stuck around for the novelty of seeing another team lift the old Sela. It may add a bit of credibility to future editions to have one of Europe’s illustrious names on the base (if they do such a thing) and one in the eye for any critics making unfounded accusations of us just inviting someone here to get beat every year so as we can give ourselves a cup. Who’s laughing now eh?

This pre-season has of course been anything but a laugh.

Knockbacks, turmoil in the camp and a failure to register a win beyond that early BCD victory against National League Carlisle. Sean Longstaff scored in that and it feels like ages since he left. Results are not the be all for warm ups though, and I’d trade all the Sela cups in the world for an opening win at Villa. Rays of optimism are also breaking through, as creditable sources suggest that both Malick Thiaw and Yoane Wissa could be on that bus to Brum, with breakthroughs apparently on for the week ahead. I’m now off for a quick holiday to forget about all this stuff again ahead of Villa and whoever it is we play next.

This will definitely be a fine season. Up the Mags.

Final score:

Newcastle 0 Atletico Madrid 2

Goals:

Newcastle:

Atletico Madrid: Alvarez 50, Griezmann 63

Attendance:

51,584

Newcastle team v Atletico Madrid:

Pope, Ashby (Alfie Harrison 61), Lascelles, Botman (Alex Murphy 46), Livramento, Trippier (Shahar 87), Joelinton, Tonali, Elanga, Gordon (Neave 84), Barnes

Unused Subs:

Ruddy, Gillespie, Charlton, Kuol, Sanusi

Newcastle United pre-season friendly schedule 2025/26

Saturday 12 July – Newcastle 4 Carlisle 0 (Behind closed doors)

Saturday 19 July – Celtic 4 Newcastle 0

Sunday 27 July – Arsenal 3 Newcastle 2

Wednesday 30 July – Team K-League All Stars 1 Newcastle 0

Sunday 3 August- Spurs 1 Newcastle 1

Friday 8 August – Newcastle 2 Espanyol 2