Joe Buck reacts to Newcastle United's 4-0 pre-season win over Girona at St James' Park. A blistering first-half saw them head into the break four goals to the good courtesy of strikes from Jacob Murphy, Anthony Gordon and a double from Sean Longstaff.
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00:00So, Game 1 of the Sela Weekend is done and Newcastle United triumph with a 4-0 win over
00:06La Liga side Girona in a game that was really done after 20 minutes. I've spoken many times
00:12about Newcastle United under Eddie Howe being their best when they're similarly ruthless
00:15and they were exactly that today. I came into it thinking it's going to be a tough test.
00:20Girona were only beaten in the league last year by Barcelona Real Madrid. They were on
00:25teams that finished above them so they were in a strong outfit. They're going to be playing
00:28Champions League football this year. Newcastle blew them away with their first period. They
00:33were relentless energy and it was a really good sign that in pre-season, again, there's
00:38only a week to go this season, but the fitness level seemed right up there and they were
00:41bang at it from minute one. Sean Longstaff was scoring with a well-taken goal. He had
00:46a brilliant season in front of goal last year, of course. A bit of criticism on his performances,
00:52he's talked about that earlier in the week, but he silenced them critics with a well-taken
00:56finish after a good move down the right. Jacob Murphy started that, he fed Isaac. We played
01:01at Livermore and squared it across for Sean Longstaff to make it 1-0. It was a really
01:06good start for Newcastle and then minutes later they were 2-0 up with another well-worked
01:11goal this time. Jacob Murphy getting on the score sheet again in pre-season. He's been
01:15brilliant all pre-season also and his performance overall today certainly deserved at least
01:20one goal. Again, good work from Isaac. Now, Isaac didn't actually get on the score sheet
01:24but he was involved in pretty much every goal and he was brilliant. His stand-across
01:30was headed on by Lewis Hall and that was Jacob Murphy on the back post of Sam Holman. It
01:35was a really good start for Newcastle. Again, when they do those quick bursts of energy,
01:40bursts of goals, you think, can they get another one? And they did. They got another one almost
01:43straight away. This time through, Anthony Gordon, I believe. Sean Longstaff can't remember
01:52his name. They just kept going and going. It was a brilliant opening 45 minutes but
01:59as I mentioned, Gordon gets his goal. He looked a bit rusty at the beginning but then all of a
02:04sudden he pounced on a through ball, one-on-one with the keep and you never expect him to miss
02:08and he didn't miss. To be fair, that was a brilliant finish from Gordon. He only played
02:1245 minutes but it's great to see him back and hopefully he can be fit enough for that opening
02:17against Southampton. Then Sean Longstaff again with another goal. Again, Jacob Murphy involved
02:24his stand-across. Joe Linton-Header hits the bar and now Sean Longstaff, right place, right time,
02:28smashed home. Very well done from him to keep the ball down low because it could have been
02:32easy to snatch at that chance. And the only guy still heading into the break, 4-0. It could have
02:35even been more. Before Sean Longstaff made a 4-0, Alexander Eastad was some brilliant work. Now
02:39everyone remembers that run against Everton where Jacob Murphy scored in but he repeated that over
02:44on the left in front of the Gallagher. Earned himself a penalty, he stepped up but it was a good save
02:48from Gazzaniga to deny him. But yeah, it was a brilliant first-half performance from Nick
02:53Assel and game over by then. You can't look at the result too much, it doesn't really matter but
02:57the fitness levels were on show and Audi Howell will no doubt be really happy with this side's
03:02performance. Second half, as always, teams make changes. Anthony Gordon has brought off half-time
03:07as mentioned. Trevor Samuelski came on. Now he deserves a real shout out because he was brilliant
03:11on the left wing. He was really energetic, really lively, lots of good touches, really brave as well.
03:15Sometimes you see academy players coming in and they're a bit timid but he looked like he'd been
03:19playing first-team football forever. Now obviously you want to temper expectations a little bit. I
03:23don't expect him to come play every game this season but it's someone that the club will be
03:27happy to have and hopefully nurture in their top ten because he does look like a really good
03:31prospect. Another shout out for Jamie Miley, he started today. That was his best performance
03:37under Eddie Howe in the first team, certainly. This pre-season was certainly probably
03:41better. He was really good, lots of nice touches, got the team going in attack.
03:47He was brilliant. Joe Linton beside him was fantastic. Another massive physical
03:51performance and something that demonstrates how much they really did miss him last year.
03:54They really, really did miss him last year. So he was brilliant. As I've already mentioned,
03:57Longstaffer, he could go across the team. Everyone was fantastic. I think the star of the show was
04:01Isaac even though he didn't get himself on the score sheet. He was simply faultless up front.
04:05He did everything but score at the end and he just showed that his superstar quality in Newcastle
04:09against Neyham so much this season. If he can get goals, if he can play like that and he can add
04:14goals to a display like that, that would be fantastic. Now I imagine against Southampton,
04:18we'll see tomorrow how Eddie Howe lines up, but I imagine the starting front three for Newcastle
04:23will be Murphy, Isaac and probably Gordon. Maybe Barnes depending on Gordon's fitness levels,
04:27but yeah, that looks a real dangerous front three. It has been all pre-season so certainly
04:33Isaac and Murphy have. But yeah, across the pitch, it was great to see Newcastle. As I said,
04:38the result doesn't really matter, but it's nice to get that win and to have a performance like
04:42that, such a dominating performance. As I said, it was done within the first 20, certainly done
04:45a half-time against a Champions League club who had some recognisable Premier League names,
04:49Donny van der Beek, Aureole Romelu, Brian Hill plays. So there's names there which have played
04:54in the Premier League and at a decent level in the Premier League. But yeah, it was a fantastic
04:58performance from Newcastle and then going tomorrow against Stade Brestois with a different
05:03change of level. We expect to see Kieran Trippier play, for example. We imagine Harvey Barnes,
05:08we imagine there might be a debut for Will Osula up front. So yeah, there's plenty to look forward
05:11to tomorrow, but a great performance from Newcastle tonight and hopefully they can back
05:15that up tomorrow ahead of their first game against Southampton in just over a week's time.