Newcastle United’s controversial post-season trip to Australia ended in humiliation as Eddie Howe’s young side were hammered 8-0 by the A-League All Stars.
Newcastle and Tottenham came in for widespread criticism for arranging to play a friendly in Melbourne on Wednesday just three days after the culmination of the Premier League season at the weekend.
Newcastle extended their stay Down Under to meet a selection of the Australian domestic league’s best players but may now be ruing that decision after they were torn apart at Marvel Stadium.
Howe opted to give the club’s youngsters the chance to shine but they were no match for a more experienced line-up.
The All Stars led 3-0 at half-time thanks to goals from Ben Old, Nicolas Milanovic and Adam Taggart.
The onslaught continued after the break with Apostolos Stamatelopoulos grabbing a double before Jake Hollman, Jordan Courtney-Perkins and Bozhidar Kraev completed the scoring.
Full-time in Melbourne. #GlobalFootballWeek // #NUFC pic.twitter.com/JD9T5dacTj
— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) May 24, 2024
Howe said: “That was a tough one for our young lads. You can see probably the gap between experience and youth.
“I don’t think we could have [played any of the first-team players], especially when you combine the travelling time that we’ve had and the quick time between games, it was too big of a risk of injuries and we couldn’t afford that.
“I think just too many mistakes, forced by the All Stars playing well. A lot of our players need to reflect on that and see what they need to do to come back stronger.”
