Pre-season is mainly match sharpness and making sure the squad are building fitness levels ahead of the new season.

It also allows Eddie Howe to try out new things and use different players without the fear of dropping points, yet it’s fair to say Saturday’s 4-0 defeat to Celtic was a little worrying in the context of our summer so far.

New signings are needed and the 10,000 Mags in the away end didn’t get much to shout about in Glasgow, but what has Howe had to say about it all?

Howe on 4-0 loss to Celtic

Rotating two different starting XIs, and even handing Anthony Elanga his non-competitive debut for the club, just wasn’t enough for Newcastle as Celtic triumphed 4-0 on Saturday afternoon.

But Howe has rightfully pointed out that his squad is yet to get to full fitness and preparation for the season ahead, particularly compared to Celtic, and that it was a good initial test for the team ahead of a long campaign.

“We take a load from that, that was a really good test for us,” Howe said after the match.

“I think the pre-season is designed to really stretch us. We know we’ve got a really challenging season ahead with all the competitions we’re in. This was a test that maybe came a little too early for us.”

“I think Celtic played very well. I thought we played well in phases of the game. I thought we created a lot of chances. We should have scored a couple of goals.

”Overall, I think the team would be better for the game.”

Lessons learned in defeat

Howe highlighted that we definitely should have scored today, but lapses in defence and concentration cost us.

Joe Willock and Nick Pope in particular were labelled for criticism by the fans for their respective first half performances, with one giving away a penalty and the other gifting Celtic a second.

“I think the goals we conceded naturally were the poorest aspects of our performance. Because other than that, I don’t think they had, other than four goals, it wasn’t a game where we were consistently under pressure.”

“We more than held our own. We just obviously defended those moments poorly.”

“We were trying various things today. Some was good, some was bad, but that’s the beauty of pre-season. It’s very rare you get a chance to experiment to a degree and without it costing you points.”

“So we’ve got a lot of work to do, we know that, but we’re in the very early stages of the pre-season.”

The absence of four top stars

With Lewis Hall still recovering from foot surgery – he’s done light work behind the scenes – and Tino Livramento given some much needed time off after the U-21 EUROs, the other most notable absentees today were Alexander Isak and Joelinton.

And Howe has made it very clear that this early into the pre-season, he wants to manage minutes and fitness more than anything.

“Both are fit but not ready to play. Alex has trained and is fine but we didn’t want to take the risk with him.”