Newcastle 3-4 Portland Timbers 2 – NUFC Match Ratings

10. Ayoze Perez - 4.5/10

Something's not quite right with Ayoze Perez this pre-season as he put in another sub-par display. These aren't good early signs from the Spaniard, who seems to be struggling to adapt to the way Steve McClaren wants him to play. He did start up front alongside Papiss Cisse in the first-half, but the service from wide areas always seemed to be a couple of yards in front of the forwards as Newcastle huffed and puffed in attacking areas. All we really saw from Ayoze all night was a fine-looking curled effort which was easily saved by the Portland keeper. His performance was summed up by one act of utter rage in the second period as he crashed the ball off the artificial turf. Things simply didn't go his way. It looks like McClaren will need to put an arm around the youngster if United are going to see anything near what he produced last term.