Newcastle United won the first game of their post-season tour in Australia on Wednesday morning.
Eddie Howe’s side drew 1-1 with Tottenham in Melbourne before edging a penalty shootout 5-4 thanks to Mark Gillespie’s early save.
James Maddison had given Spurs the lead after Nick Pope’s poor pass out from the back before Alexander Isak responded just before the break.
Clearly, it’s difficult to take the game all too seriously.
At least pre-season friendlies offer some indication as to plans for the campaign ahead. When they come at the end of the season, it’s difficult to draw even the most spurious of conclusions.
Indeed, Newcastle made a raft of changes throughout the contest and ended up with a completely different team to the one who started the game.
One of the changes saw Pope replaced by Gillespie during the closing stages.
Gillespie, who recently signed a new contract with the club, saved Bryan Gil’s spot-kick to get Newcastle off to a flying start before his outfield teammates did the rest.
Take away all the talk about flying across the world for two games for a second. Gillespie is a local lad who has barely featured for the first-team since joining in 2020, so it was nice to see him have his moment in the sun.
Indeed, Dan Burn was particularly pleased.
Dan Burn sprints to celebrate with Mark Gillespie after Newcastle win penalty shootout
Another local lad, Burn was clearly delighted for Gillespie.
The defender, who had been subbed off, sprinted over to the goalkeeper immediately after the penalty shootout to celebrate with his teammate.
It was something mentioned by commentary and one supporter in the crowd managed to take a video of the celebrations on X, formerly Twitter.
Mark Gillespie just had the best moment of his Newcastle career
It would of course be foolish to put too much emphasis on a friendly.
Still, the 32-year-old is believed to be a brilliant presence behind the scenes, helping set standards both on the pitch and off it.
To see him get a moment in the sun is pretty heartwarming. Even if Newcastle had to go all the way to Australia to get it.
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