Sean Steur looks good at least - Gateshead 1-1 Newcastle United

Newcastle United walked away from the Gateshead International Stadium with a draw following a very typical pre-season affair.

We're not going to get too carried away with what we just witnessed, as it was Newcastle's second pre-season game and Eddie Howe still has a whole host of players yet to return for selection.

That being said, it was hardly compelling viewing as the Magpies began their mission to regain match sharpness following the break.

It's far too early to really learn any lessons from this one, especially given the calibre of opposition, but still, Sean Steur looks like a really good prospect. The Dutch teenager was one of only two players who played the full 90 minutes, and bar one wayward pass that went out for a throw-in, I can't remember him putting a foot wrong at any point.

Alex Murphy was the other player to last the whole game, and he looked fairly solid too, although he didn't have a great deal to do.

At least we saw goals

Gateshead took the lead late in the first half via Luke Supyk after a free kick was floated over the wall into his path. It was entirely against the run of play as Newcastle maintained pressure for pretty much the entirety of the 90 minutes.

Newcastle's equaliser came via an own goal on 79 minutes, but it was a Lewis Hall shot that was deflected into the back of the net.

Eddie Howe made plenty of substitutions, with nine Under-21 players getting some minutes in the second half, of whom Park Seung-soo once again looked lively, as did Matheos Ferreira and Vakhtang Salia.

Joe Willock and Jacob Murphy need to be more convincing

Again, it's too early to really say anything definitely, but based on today, the need to shift on and replace Joe Willock and Jacob Murphy was glaringly obvious. 

They should be walking through a National League side, but they couldn't make anything happen. We'd lump Nick Pope in there too, but not based on anything he did today, although he faced like one shot and it went in, so that's not great.

We wonder if that Gateshead goalkeeper is available this summer. It felt like nothing was going to get past him today.

All in all, it is what it is. An early pre-season friendly. We weren't expecting anything dynamic or pulsating, and on that front, they really delivered. Bristol City up next on Wednesday. Hopefully we'll see a couple of familiar faces return for that one, and maybe an uptick in tempo and intent.