Newcastle ended their tour of Australia with a resounding friendly defeat as a side largely made up of youngsters were battered 8-0 by the A-League All Stars.
Eddie Howe made wholesale changes from the team that overcame Tottenham on penalties on Wednesday, with Newcastle’s XI comprising of half a dozen teenagers while every outfield player was 22 or younger.
First-team trio Kieran Trippier, Elliot Anderson and Lewis Hall were left on the bench as Newcastle fell 3-0 down inside 34 minutes following goals from Ben Old, Nicolas Milanovic and Adam Taggart.
Fourth-choice goalkeeper Mark Gillespie, 32, was beaten for a fourth time after the interval when Apostolos Stamatelopoulos struck before 17-year-old shot-stopper Aidan Harris was introduced.
Harris was beaten by Stamatelopoulos before Jake Hollman, Jordan Courtney-Perkins and Bozhidar Kraev sealed the rout for an All Stars side made up of players from Australia and New Zealand’s top league.
The timing of this tour, just a few days after the Premier League season had wrapped up, was labelled “madness” and “crazy” by former Newcastle striker and manager Alan Shearer on the BBC’s Match of the Day.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
