Newcastle‘s controversial post-season tour of Australia ended in an embarrassing defeat on Friday as they were thrashed 8-0 by the A-League All Stars in Melbourne.
The Australian team’s victory was their first against European opposition with the likes of Manchester United, Juventus and Barcelona beating previous iterations of the All Stars squad.
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Manager Eddie Howe had named an inexperienced side for the match after many of Newcastle’s first-team players had flown home following their penalty shootout victory over Tottenham on Wednesday.
Lewis Hall, Elliot Anderson and Kieran Trippier were the only senior players among Howe’s squad, although they were all unused substitutes.
“It was always going to be difficult,” Howe told a news conference after the match. “I think it was really good for the young lads to go through that today. You see the difference between the experience of the All Stars — I thought they played very well — and the inexperience of some of our players.
“Probably the biggest difference was physically, in the last part of the game where they could bring substitutes on, they look good, and they look stronger for it. And we tailed off quite badly. So I think there’s a lot of individual growth there from that game today.
“It was always going to be a test. I couldn’t take any risks with any senior player today. I think that would have been foolish of me. It could have jeopardised their futures going into next season.
“So today was about given an opportunity to the younger players and to see who out of that group next year could play a part in our first team.
“It’s difficult to probably fully analyse every single player, because collectively, we weren’t strong enough. But I’m sure some of the players will look back at that day and think that may be a turning point where they realise they’ve got a lot more to do to get closer to the first team.”
Their two-match postseason tour on the other side of the world has been criticised by climate change campaign groups, with Trippier previously saying that he felt the matches were “not ideal.”
Information from ESPN’s Joey Lynch contributed to this report
