In what was supposed to be a behind-closed-doors ‘friendly’, it looks like Newcastle’s training game against Al-Ittihad was anything but!
We came away 2-1 winners at the Prince Abdullah Al Faisal Stadium thanks to goals from Allan Saint-Maximin and Ryan Fraser, however Ciaran Clark was sent off in the second half for hitting out at Abderazak Hamdallah following a late challenge.
16 players featured in the 70-minute game in Jeddah, with Matty Longstaff making his first appearance since returning from a loan spell with Aberdeen.
Elsewhere, it was interesting to see that Kieran Trippier was handed the captains armband as Jamaal Lascelles was named on the bench.
Here’s the starting 11 and subs Eddie Howe went with (everyone featured but Woodman), followed by clips of both of our goals and the Clark red card:
NUFC XI: Darlow; Trippier, Schar, Clark, Manquillo; Hendrick, Willock, S.Longstaff; Murphy, Saint-Maximin, Gayle.
SUBS: Woodman, Lascelles, Gillespie, Shelvey, M.Longstaff, Fraser.
What kind of clampit gets sent off in a friendly man????
Ridiculous – get him back to the UK and get him sold or released, not bothered either way really ??♂️ – oh, and there’s a few others he can take with him.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Need to get rid of clark
Steve legg(Quote)