Chemitzer 1 - 0 Newcastle United Pre-Season Friendly Match Report

Very young Newcastle defeated in first pre-season friendly in Germany.

By Simon Gallagher / July 14, 2012

Newcastle United lined up for their first pre-season friendly of the summer this evening in their brand new black and white Puma home kit in front of a small but spirited crowd in the Stadion an der Gellertstrae, Chemnitz, Germany, and were beaten by the home side, after a ninth minute goal from Anton Fink. 6,700 fans turned out to see the home side, who have already played three pre-season games, rebuff a host of Newcastle chances, thanks to outstanding goalkeeper Philipp Pentke who saved from Dan Gosling, Haris Vuckic and Shola Ameobi. As is the nature of these games, Alan Pardew took the game as an opportunity to give some new and fringe players a run out, with every single one of the named substitutes playing some part apart from veteran goalkeeper Steve Harper, and in truth Newcastle fans shouldn't look at the result as indicative of anything. Pardew spoke to the club's official site before the game to state that the objective of the game had been to give some of the squad players some time on the pitch in anticipation of them seeing more first-team action with the Europa League boosting the fixture list (provided things go well):

It will be a young side tonight and these young players really need to come through this season, with the Europa League, League Cup, FA Cup and Premier League programme that weve got. The big-hitters will start coming in later on in the pre-season, and it gives the younger lads the chance to impress from day one. So I will be looking for the (Haris) Vuckics of this world, Mehdi (Abeid) and Sammy Ameobi to show up well tonight.

Mehdi Abeid looked the brightest on the pitch, and new signing Romain Amalfitano showed flashes of what compelled Graham Carr to suggest his services to the Newcastle board, but again this was only the first step of a pre-season period that will next up see Newcastle facing Monaco on Monday at TSV Landsberg's Hacker-Pschorr Sports Park in the Bavarian town of Landsberg am Lech, which will be shown live on ESPN. Line-ups:

Chemnitzer (4-4-2): Phillip Pentke; Fabian Stenzel, Toni Wachsmuth, Marcel Wilke, Thomas Birk; Sascha Pfeffer, Carsten Straer (c), Maik Kegel, Josip Landeka; Anton Fink, Benjamin Forster Subs: Stefan Schmidt, Silvio Bankert, Florian Hornig, Christoph Buchner, Tino Semmer, Selim Aydemir, Anton Makarenko, Felix Paul, Marcel Baude, David Jansen Newcastle United (4-4-2): Rob Elliot; James Tavernier, James Perch, Mike Williamson (c), Ryan Taylor; Gabriel Obertan, Dan Gosling, Mehdi Abeid, Romain Amalfitano; Haris Vuckic, Sammy Ameobi Subs not used: Steve Harper, Danny Simpson, Davide Santon, Gael Bigirimana, Jonas Gutierrez, Shola Ameobi, Demba Ba