Newcastle United 4-0 Villarreal - Jordan Cronin's post-match reaction
Newcastle United lifted the Sela Cup following a 4-0 win over Villarreal. A brace from Harvey Barnes and goals from Jacob Murphy and Joelinton wrapped up a winning end to pre-season.
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00:00 So Newcastle have been crowned Sella Cup champions after a 4-0 win against Villarreal this afternoon.
00:07 Obviously that follows on from yesterday's 2-0 win over Florentina.
00:11 Newcastle do actually win the Sella Cup by a landslide in the end.
00:15 Two wins, six goals, equals a total of 12 points which they top the group with.
00:21 Second best start, Florentina who registered five points as well.
00:24 So a little bit of early season silverware if you can call it that ahead of next weekend's opener against Aston Villa.
00:30 But what did we learn from today's game?
00:33 Well the biggest talking point and the biggest positive was Harvey Barnes' performance.
00:37 He made his first start at St James' Park in a Newcastle shirt and certainly lived up to the expectation
00:44 because I thought he was exceptional today.
00:48 Pace, power, direct running and scored two really good goals as well.
00:54 Really impressive feasibility to get inside the box.
00:58 Two right-footed finishes from fairly close range.
01:02 The first where he was laid off from Joe Linton when he started the ball into the bottom right-hand corner.
01:07 Callum Wilson as well put it on a plate for Harvey Barnes to tap home from close range.
01:12 But it's really encouraging to see Harvey Barnes in that position.
01:15 I think you can immediately see why Eddie Harbour was so keen to bring him in
01:19 and why he was keen to sacrifice Alan St-Maxim to bring Harvey Barnes in.
01:25 We're all sad to see St-Maxim go but as I've said previously he didn't score enough goals from that position.
01:32 He didn't bring in enough assists.
01:34 I think Harvey Barnes will do that as he showed last season with Leicester.
01:37 Obviously their top goalscorer in a season where Leicester were actually relegated as well.
01:42 So really encouraged by Harvey Barnes.
01:45 Will he start next week against Aston Villa?
01:47 I don't think he will. I think Eddie Harbour will keep faith with Anthony Gordon, Alex Adizak and Al Maran as the front three.
01:56 They started against Florentina.
01:59 As we've seen in previous pre-seasons, our last pre-season, Eddie Harbour does tend to play groups of players together.
02:05 That was the three yesterday and I do think they will start the season.