Dominic Scurr reflects on Newcastle United's 4-1 win over Urawa at the Saitama Stadium.
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00:00Hello everyone from a very dark Saitama Stadium. I'm sure you can see that there.
00:05I'm gonna actually head inside because I've tried to film a video but obviously the
00:09floodlights go off. So yeah, Newcastle United have beat Uroa Red Diamonds 4-1,
00:15continues their perfect start the preseason, three wins from three if you
00:20like, if you don't include that secret Burnley friendly. So yeah, a good run out
00:26for Eddie Howe's side in difficult conditions, very, very warm and obviously
00:31it rained quite a bit as well, thunder and lightning before the game and Eddie Howe
00:36went with a strong team, minus the likes of Bruno, Fabian Scheer, Martin De Brouwerka,
00:42Miguel Alonson came off the bench in the game and, just caught myself in the
00:47reflection there, and yeah, we saw Alexander Isak score after three minutes, he
00:54continues his good scoring start to preseason, as does Jacob Murphy, two more
00:59goals for him, four goals in three preseason games and then Lewis Hull got
01:03in on the action, heavily deflected strike, but shout out to two players in
01:08particular, Nick Pope continues his great form in preseason, albeit I've only
01:13watched two games, but had a good game at Hull, very good tonight, made one
01:17brilliant save and then also a penalty save as well, so excellent from him and
01:23it kept Newcastle with a foothold in the game because at the point of the penalty
01:27it was 1-1, Europa had the momentum behind them but then, penalty save,
01:33Jacob Murphy then gives Newcastle the lead after, just before half-time,
01:38sorry, and then Newcastle go on to win relatively comfortably and then
01:42bringing the young players on and yeah, good overall, I don't really know why I'm
01:48going here, but I'll walk around, and yeah, good overall performance but yeah, the other
01:53player I want to shout out to, Joe Willock, first game back since April,
01:59excellent, played a role in two goals that happened when he was on the pitch,
02:04Alex Anders had a great pass to him and then Jacob Murphy as well, so yeah, he was
02:09probably my star player of the outfield players and then Nick Pope obviously does
02:14what he does best in goal as well, so yeah, great, decent performance, I say
02:19great, decent performance, good performance from Newcastle United in a
02:22friendly game, Eddie Howe still thinks there's plenty more to come from his
02:26players as you'd hope ahead of the new season but hey, not going too badly
02:30overall and hopefully we'll see the likes of Bruno, Fabian Scheer return to the
02:38first-team set-up because defensively Newcastle were still a bit suspect
02:42tonight, we saw Emil Kraft still at right centre-back, Dan Byrne left centre-back
02:49and then Joe Linton even came into the centre-back role for the closing stages,
02:54Cathal Heffernan came on the pitch as well, young lad, off the bench so yeah,
02:58hopefully we'll see a bit more strengthening in those key centre-back
03:04positions in terms of incomings but Eddie Howe was asked about that, whether
03:07Newcastle were close to a breakthrough and he said, a typical Eddie Howe
03:13response, you hope so, we're working hard to try and make that happen, so yeah, that
03:20was pretty much, pretty much it in terms of what Eddie Howe said after the game,
03:25obviously spoke highly of Joe Willock and Trevon Sanussi got a shout out as
03:30well who's obviously played a prominent role in pre-season in terms of being
03:35involved in all three friendly games so far and having only just signed his
03:40first pro contract, I think obviously if you expect him to remain in and around
03:45the first team in this Premier League season, probably a bit premature, Eddie
03:49Howe recognised that but hey, first impression, very positive for the
03:5417-year-old winger who came off the bench today, he could have scored if he
03:57was maybe a little bit more selfish and didn't try and pass to Meghan Ron, but
04:01yeah, all in all, great stadium, I mean it was probably about a third full
04:07tonight but Newcastle United support has certainly made their voices heard, they
04:11packed out their way in and yeah, all in all, a good evening, a productive evening
04:15for Newcastle United and we'll look ahead now to Saturday's game back in
04:19Tokyo when Yubawa, which is just sort of north, northeast of the main Tokyo
04:25centre where Newcastle are based and yeah, Newcastle will be at the Tokyo
04:30National Stadium where they play Yokohama F Marinos on Saturday, which is I
04:35think 11 o'clock UK time, 7 o'clock local time, so we'll be all there, myself
04:44and my northeast media colleagues who've made the trip over and we'll have all
04:49the coverage to come over on the Shields Gazette, so be sure to check that out, all
04:53the reaction from this game to come, we've already got player ratings, reaction
04:57from Eddie Howell, we'll have the likes of Jamie Miley who came off the bench
05:01again today, Joe Willock to come in the coming days, interviews from them and of
05:05course previews looking ahead to the game against Yokohama on Saturday, so
05:12we'll see you there, more videos to come in the coming days over on social media
05:17of course as well and plenty more content as well, so thanks for watching,
05:21putting up with me for the past five or so minutes and yeah, stay tuned for more
05:26from Newcastle United's preseason tour in Japan.