· 8 August 2025, 21:38
**Toothless Newcastle United almost managed to nab their first pre-season win in front of fans tonight at St James' Park, but former Middlesbrough man, Kiko, had other ideas.**
If Newcastle don't manage to secure a new striker before the start of the season, we are in for a long, long campaign.
Again, we have to preface this by saying it's a pre-season friendly and it was a team that, we bloody hope, doesn't resemble anything like a first-choice starting XI, with several key players being saved for Atletico Madrid tomorrow.
In fairness, Newcastle actually played well for the most part. Lewis Hall looked good in his 45 minutes on the pitch, Park Seung-soo continues to impress, although at times it felt like his teammates were reluctant to pass to him for whatever reason.
The man who caused the most excitement tonight
Matt was on Targett, but why was he in midfield?
------------------------------------------------
Matt Targett had the most mixed game ever, looking poor for Espanyol's opening goal before equalising with a point-blank header a couple of minutes later.
Then the former Aston Villa man, playing in the centre of midfield, gave away a penalty which was poorly taken and ultimately saved by debutant Aaron Ramsdale, who could have done nothing about either Espanyol goal. Also, we saw him use his feet a couple of times, and the ball didn't balloon out for a throw-in, so that's positive.
Jacob Murphy gave Newcastle a deserved lead, but a Kike header at the death, stealing in ahead of Emil Krafth, who had a fairly poor game too, stopped Newcastle from notching a much-needed win.
Newcastle will carry a much bigger attacking threat tomorrow
------------------------------------------------------------
Youngster Alfie Harrison, who arrived from Manchester City with bags of promise, replaced Lewis Hall at half time, and it's safe to say we now know why things went so quiet after his signing. He's absolute pish. We want to give him the benefit of the doubt in that he's young and possibly too desperate to impress Eddie Howe, but he got on the ball a lot and gave it away almost every time.
It doesn't make much sense to use age as an excuse, though, given Park Seung-soo is the same age and has only just arrived and looked far more comfortable. I did christen him Park Seung-maximin at one point, however, as he does have a tendency to run into nowhere, but we're sure that given time, training and confidence, he'll start running into useful areas and providing the kind of balls we need ... to a striker we don't have.
The need for a centre forward was so apparent again tonight. For all the possession, it did at times feel like we could have played all night and not scored. Murphy's goal came from an error by Espanyol trying to play out of the back, so that was a gift. Targett would have found it harder to miss than score.
We love Will Osula, but it's clear he is not ready to lead the line yet. He has the strength and pace, but doesn't seem to know how to use it to his advantage. We definitely believe there's a player in there, but not yet, unfortunately.
It's back to St James' Park tomorrow for a much more stern test with Atletico Madrid coming to try and get their hands on the Sela Cup. We should carry more attacking threat tomorrow with Anthony Gordon, Harvey Barnes and Anthony Elanga likely to feature, so fingers crossed we end pre-season with at least some hope.