Sean Steur starts - Newcastle United team news to face Gateshead

Newcastle United take on Gateshead FC at the Gateshead International Stadium this afternoon. Kick-off is at 12:30pm.

The pre-season games officially get underway today with the Magpies taking on Heed. You can watch the game via NUFC.co.uk if you buy the game pass or the pre-season pass to do so.

Eddie Howe has named his side that will start the game against Gateshead today; it's a mix of first-team and youth players, although the emphasis is very much on youth.

Jacob Murphy has been handed the captain's armband today, and of the new signings, only Sean Steur is named in the starting lineup, while Ewen Jaoeun is named on the bench.

Newcastle will be in blue this afternoon

Looking at the graphic for today's game, the Magpies will be wearing their new away kit, which officially went on sale on Friday.

The first-half team is as follows:

Starting XI:  Pope -  Hall,  Murphy,  Schar,  Shahar -  Steur,  Willock,  Ramsey -  Barnes,  Neave,  Murphy (c).

Subs:  Jaouen,  Gillespie,  Harris, Charlton, Craggs, Munda, Seung-Soo, Pivas, Salia, Sanusi, Ferreira, Finneran, M Miley.

Plenty of A-listers are still missing

There are a lot of names missing from that teamsheet, including new signings Bazoumana Toure and Aladji Bamba.

The likes of Tino Livramento, Joelinton and Lewis Miley are still recovering from injuries, and everyone who participated in the World Cup is still missing, even if they had returned to training, i.e. Anthony Elanga.

We hope to see some of the youngsters on the bench given a run-out. We're particularly hoping to get another look at Park Seung-Soo and Trevan Sanusi.

Should be an interesting game.