Newcastle announce four more pre-season friendlies with St James’ Park fixture to come

Newcastle United have today announced four more pre-season friendly games following on from their announcement of the controversial tie with Everton at Scotland's Murrayfield Stadium.

Fans haven't been best pleased with the club's decision to play a pre-season friendly at Murrayfield, with some suspecting that it's a dry run for a potential ground share deal while work is carried out on St James' Park or the new stadium is built.

Time will tell if the conspiracy holds water, but for now, fans will have to make their way to Edinburgh on 12th August to watch the Magpies take on the Toffees.

If you don't want to cross the border, however, the club has announced four more friendlies this morning, and at least one is much closer to home.

Newcastle outline pre-season plans

Newcastle will return to training on 13th July and will end the week with a behind-closed-doors friendly with Darlington to ease them back into the groove.

Then on 25th July, Newcastle will cross the River Tyne to face Gateshead at the Gateshead International Stadium with a 12:30pm kick-off. Tickets can be purchased directly from Gateshead.

Newcastle will then travel down to Bristol to Ashton Gate to face Bristol City on Wednesday, 29th July at 7:30pm before jetting off to a week-long training camp in Spain, which will culminate in a friendly with La Liga side Valencia at the Mestalla Stadium. Newcastle will take on the hosts for the Trofeu Taronja (Orange Cup) with a kick-off time of 8pm UK Time (9pm local).

There's more to come

Ticket information for the Bristol City and Valencia games isn't available as yet, but keep an eye on Newcastle's website for further information.

There will also be further friendlies to be announced as the club will look to wrap up pre-season with at least one fixture at St James' Park. With Sela no longer the main sponsor, the Sela Weekender is no longer a thing, but the club may look to continue the tradition with a new name.

It looks as though Newcastle are ramping up the difficulty quite nicely with these fixtures. We can't wait to see who we will face at St James' Park.