Newcastle United rounded off their pre-season campaign with a 1-1 draw with French side Strasbourg at St. James’ Park.
Their first half lead thanks to the boot of William Osula was cancelled out by Strasbourg’s Gessime Yassine.
There remains concern in several areas for the Magpies, although the performance was an improvement on losses against Everton and Bayer Leverkusen.
Within the opening two minutes United should have been ahead, as William Osula rose like a salmon to head towards goal. The Dane met Jacob Murphy’s cross to force Filip Jorgensen into a smart reaction save to keep the ball out.
It was the same combination that saw Newcastle eventually open the scoring. It came near the end of the first period, with Murphy this time driving a low ball across goal.
Osula was there to meet it in the middle to give the Magpies the lead at the break.
The second half was a rather unexciting affair, with substitutions interrupting the flow of the game, as is customary in pre-season.
The Magpies’ best moment after the opener came again from Osula, as he went through on goal, only to put his delicate chip wide of the post.
That miss injected fresh impetus into Strasbourg, who were soon level thanks to a cultured finish from Gessime Yassine in the 69th minute.
Strasbourg had the better of the 20 minutes that remained, but by this point several youth players were on for United, who looked content to see out the fixture.
The draw ends what has been another tough summer on Tyneside. Their Premier League campaign starts with the visit of Liverpool in just seven days.
By that time, Newcastle will hope to have added Bosnian full back Amar Dedic to their ranks. However, if pre-season has shown anything, it is that more players are needed through the door.