Hopkinson was in attendance as Newcastle recorded their first win of the season against Wolves
Sean McCormick is a football writer covering Newcastle United for ChronicleLive. After starting his career covering North East sport, he has had a spell working as an editor on the Manchester Evening News. He also writes about darts and boxing. He joined us in 2016.
New Newcastle United CEO David Hopkinson (centre) at St James' Park
New Newcastle United CEO David Hopkinson (centre) at St James' Park
(Image: Chronicle Live/Iain Buist)
New Newcastle United CEO David Hopkinson will certainly remember his first experience of St James' Park.
Eddie Howe's Magpies have become renowned for their intensity and few teams in the league can match them physically when they are at full throttle.
Wolves gave as good as they got and twice went close to opening the scoring inside the opening two minutes, only for Nick Pope to be alert enough to smartly save efforts from Rodrigo Gomes and Hwang Hee-Chan.
But Newcastle quickly grew into the game and began to exert that physical dominance that Hopkinson saw first hand for himself at the training ground on Friday afternoon.
The new United chief, who was appointed as Darren Eales' successor earlier this month, spent some time meeting supporters in Stack before the game.
He then introduced himself to members of the media before kick-off against Wolves - shaking hands with each of us before having a brief chat with us individually.
Hopkinson was polite and courteous but his enthusiasm was infectious. When I asked him how he was feeling ahead of his first Newcastle game he said he felt 'energised' before praising how 'intense' the players were in Howe's final training session before the Wolves game.
That intensity bore fruit in the first half when Newcastle's new £65million centre-forward marked his debut with a goal.
Jacob Murphy, preferred on the right-hand side, floated in a delightful cross and Nick Woltemade rose above his marker to bullet home a header the likes of Alan Shearer and Les Ferdinand would have been proud of.
Howe told the media on Friday that Hopkinson's positivity made him 'laugh' and labelled his new boss as a great person with great energy. If that energy is matched on the pitch, as it has been throughout Howe's era, their season will almost certainly be a success.
Hopkinson got a taste of the St James' Park experience on Saturday. He has worked with the likes of the New York Knicks and Real Madrid in the past - but he may not be prepared for just how special Thursday's Champions League opener against Barcelona promises to be.