Newcastle United honoured the memory of two of their most loyal supporters in style at Dunedin's Forsyth Barr Stadium on July 22, sweeping aside Sydney FC 4-0 in the first match of the Football United tour. The crowd of 9,506 should have been two greater, but the terrorist action inflicted upon a Malaysian Airlines flight in Ukraine airspace five days ago meant two United fans travelling to New Zealand to watch "The Magpies" in action were senselessly denied the opportunity to do so. John Adler, who hadn't missed a single Newcastle game in over forty years, and Liam Sweeney were acknowledged in numerous ways throughout the first match involving a visiting UK team to take place "doon sooth" since the League of Ireland selection toured these shores in May 1982. They would have been pleased with their team's display, with the "Barcode Boys" quickly into their stride in this clash with Sydney, who are just four weeks into their pre-season work - by contrast, Newcastle kick off their Premier League campaign on August 17. Fabriccio Coloccini completely outfoxed Corey Gameiro with some nifty ball control before igniting a sixth minute move which culminated in Rolando Aarons weaving past three opponents before whipping in a low cross which no-one in a grey shirt was racing in to meet at the near post. Sydney failed to heed the warning, and three minutes later found overlapping fullback Massadio Haidara roaming down the left before whipping in a low cross which went just beyond Emmanuel Riviere. Ivan Necevski, behind him, was diving to grab the ball, but could only parry it, eventually securing it at the second attempt. Necevski's nervousness hadn't left him by the nineteenth minute, at which point he made a dreadful error in attempting to clear his lines upon receipt of Nikola Petkovic's back-pass. The 'keeper got things horribly wrong, and with Riviere lurking with menace, the outcome was inevitable. The striker steered the ball back to Siem de Jong, who calmly stroked the ball into an empty net from twenty-five yards to open the scoring. Necevski went some way to making amends for his blunder just sixty seconds later, saving well at the feet of Aarons after he had been played in by de Jong. Sebastian Ryall and Petkovic backed up their 'keeper soon after by blocking the goalbound efforts of Riviere and Coloccini, as Newcastle threatened to run riot. A teasing Aarons cross to the far post in the 26th minute found Riviere rising to meet it, but Necevski plunged to his right to produce an instinctive one-handed save to keep out the striker's downward header. This time, however, Sydney failed to clear their lines following Necevski's denial, which allowed de Jong the time to angle a ball in behind the defence for Yoan Gouffran to latch onto. He cleverly outsmarted Alexander Gersbach before fizzing a low cross into the goalmouth, where Riviere was lurking with intent. Despite Necevski's best efforts, he couldn't prevent United's new signing from opening his account for "The Magpies". 2-0 soon became 3-0 in the 33rd minute. Vurnon Anita, one of just three players to stay on the field for the entire match for United, showed a clean pair of heels on the right before inviting Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa to carry on the run. He did so, with interest, his thumping twenty-five yard drive careering into the net via a vicious deflection off Sasa Ognenovski, Sydney's captain, who played his part in ensuring the scoreline didn't change again three minutes before half-time, as the Australian club's rearguard stood firm to block a Gouffran effort to safety. As so often happens in pre-season exhibition matches such as this, the second half was punctuated by a string of substitutions made by both teams. Newcastle made eight changes in all, while Sydney restricted themselves to half that number, but ended the match with three players having been shown the yellow card for various misdemeanours by referee Campbell-Kirk Waugh. Newcastle still continued to shine, however, changes notwithstanding. Some delightful interplay between Aarons, Yanga-Mbiwa and half-time substitute Harris Vuckic in the 53rd minute resulted in the last-mentioned's shot cannoning off a defender and ricocheting narrowly over the right-

hand angle of Necevski's goal - it could have gone anywhere! Seven minutes later, another corner from the impressive Colback careered across the goalmouth, but no-one in grey could provide the touch which would have set off the travelling "Toon Army" on another chorus of the "Blaydon Races", as they celebrated a fourth goal. In the 64th minute, Sydney mustered their first chance of the match - that's a measure of Newcastle's dominance. Gersbach ignited the move, linking with substitute Milos Dimitrijevic who fed former Wellington Phoenix front-runner Gameiro. The speedster jinked inside a challenge before unleashing a curler which Rob Elliott, at full stretch diving to his left, turned round the post. Normal service resumed three minutes later, lightweight substitute Ayoze Perez Gutierrez twisting, turning and wriggling his way through three challenges, only to undo all his good work with a finish of the high, wide and far from handsome variety. Cue another Sydney raid, Bernie Ibini-Isei at its heart. But he was stopped in his tracks by some superb defensive play from Coloccini, the defender coolly nicking the ball off the striker's toes as if picking a plum off a tree - pure class. Seven minutes from time, Newcastle scored the fourth goal for which the fans longed, and the team themselves greatly deserved. A blunder near half-way by Ali Abbas was pounced on by Perez Gutierrez, who instantly fed the fresh legs of Adam Campbell, the youngster having entered the fray just sixty seconds earlier. He slipped the ball into the stride of another promising Newcastle Academy graduate, Adam Armstrong, who feinted to shoot, thus committing the covering defender. The striker then swept past his opponent before beating Necevski all ends up from the edge of the area - a fine strike. Sydney sought a consolation goal in the dying minutes, with substitute Peter Trantis inches away with a thunderous thirty yarder, while Dimitrijevic had strong penalty claims ignored by referee Waugh in stoppage time, despite the midfielder having clearly been hauled down in the penalty area. The Hyundai A-League side were no match for their Barclays Premier League rivals, however, a fact duly acknowledged by Sydney coach Graham Arnold afterwards. "They are three weeks away from playing Manchester City in their first game of the season. We've got Melbourne City in ours in two months' time". The once-potential candidate for the vacant All Whites post enthused about the match itself. "It was a wonderful experience for the boys. The better opposition you play, you learn more lessons, and three of Newcastle's goals tonight came from our mistakes". Newcastle manager Alan Pardew surprisingly didn't attend the scheduled media conference, a reflection, perhaps, of the club's ongoing stance with local newspaper, the Newcastle Evening Chronicle. They have been banned by the club from attending such gatherings since printing a story about Newcastle's owner, Mike Ashley, last October, and as a Chronicle scribe was present, Newcastle enforced their stance once more, much to the chagrin of the local media members, who were restricted to gathering comments in the mixed zone as Newcastle staff passed through en route to the team bus. Not ideal, and you can imagine how something like this would go down if, say, the Dominion Post was prevented from reporting on Wellington Phoenix in the usual manner - there'd be hell to pay, particularly in New Zealand's limited media environment. But that's the way of things where Newcastle United and the Newcastle Evening Chronicle are concerned at the moment, even though they are 11,000 miles away from their Gallowgate home. Sydney:     Necevski; Ryall, Ognenovski (booked, 72), Petkovic (booked, 40), Gersbach (Jurman, 68); Brosque (Trantis, 62 (booked, 89)), Ibini-Isei, Carle (Dimitrijevic, 55), Antonis, Abbas; Gameiro (Burgess, 81) Newcastle:     Elliott; Yanga-Mbiwa, Taylor (Satka, 76), Coloccini (Campbell, 82), Haidara (Dummett, 76); Anita, de Jong (Vuckic, 46), Colback (Abied, 68); Gouffran (Armstrong, 76), Riviere (Perez Gutierrez, 54), Aarons (Ameobi, 68) Referee:     Campbell-Kirk Waugh