Newcastle United begin their pre-season scheduled with a game against neighbours Gateshead on Saturday afternoon.
With three new signings on board, the club have enjoyed a pretty productive summer thus far, despite some early transfer frustration. Clearly, there is work to be done as Newcastle chase more attacking signings – all while trying to shift players out of St James’ Park – but it’s difficult to remember heading into a new season with so much excitement.
The likes of Bruno Guimaraes, Kieran Trippier and Bruno Guimaraes getting a whole summer schedule to further bed into the squad is a tantalising prospect and that’s without even mentioning the fresh arrivals of Nick Pope and Sven Botman.
Allan Saint-Maximin may benefit too, with this summer previously highlighted as a key time in his Newcastle career. The Frenchman, so often the shining light in a thoroughly depressing Steve Bruce team, has struggled to fit in under Howe, although working together for an extended time on the training pitch could help rectify that.
Newcastle are back in action and here’s everything you need to know about the game.
— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) July 5, 2022
Date, kick-off time and venue
The pre-season friendly is scheduled for a 12pm BST kick-off time on Saturday July 9, 2022.
Newcastle’s training ground in Benton will host, though it will be behind-closed-doors.
How to watch Newcastle vs Gateshead
TV channel and live stream: The game will not be broadcast.
Newcastle vs Gateshead team news
It’s difficult to predict too much in the way of team news, though it seems unlikely Pope, Guimaraes, Trippier or any of the players given extended time off due to international involvement last month getting too much of a run out, given they only returned to training on Wednesday.
Newcastle vs Gateshead prediction
Again, pre-season friendlies – particularly ones this early in the summer – are more about building up fitness than performances and results.
Still, it’s difficult to see a way in which Howe’s side do not win, with all due respect to Mike Williamson’s team.
Newcastle to win 3-0.
Head to head (h2h) history and results
The two teams have never met in a competitive sense.
