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NEWCASTLE UNITED crashed to a 1-0 defeat tonight in Chemnitz to start their pre-season campaign on a disappointing note.

However, Alan Pardew wasn’t too despondent after the narrow loss and said: “It was a good work out.

“Nobody has been injured and there were no silly tackles or fouls.”

Pardew named a young side for the clash with the German Liga 3 side with Romain Almalfitano staring the game to make his debut.



First team stars Cheick Tiote, Fabricio Coloccini, Papiss Cisse and Steven Taylor all watched on from the stands.



Newcastle made a steady start but the home side were playing with a quick tempo with some neat early passing movement.



United won a corner on nine minutes when Almalfitano whipped the ball in from the right hand side with Haris Vuckic heading just over the top.



In the 12 th minute Sascha Pfeffer slipped the ball to Anton Fink who smashed home powerfully with his right foot leaving Rob Elliot with no chance.



Elliot redeemed himself with an excellent save palming away with his right hand to keep out Wilk after a left wing cross landed perfectly on his forehead.



The Toon keeper berated his back four after a flying start from the German minnows.



United tried to get back into the game and Almalfitano buzzed around the midfield area eager to impress on his debut.



Dan Gosling also put in an energetic performance and put Sammy Ameobi in the clear on the half hour mark before the youngster won a free-kick.



A Ryan Taylor trademark set-piece was over the wall but into the arms of Philipp Pentke.



Gosling skimmed the bar when Pentke somehow got a touch on his shot at the back post after Tavernier’s right wing cross.



United didn’t make any changes at the break.



Ryan Taylor’s late tackle on Pfeffer infuriated the home crowd a the start of the second half but he quickly apologised to the Blue Admirals star.



United became sloppy in the second half and after Mike Williamson lost the ball in front of his own keeper Josip Landeka almost cashed in.



Almalfitano’s corner near the hour mark was headed on to the top of the net in a near miss for the Magpies.



And they almost got lucky when Marcel Wilke’s suicidal back pass almost beat his own keeper before Pentke scrambled it to safety.



Moments later Vuckic steered the ball wide from close range after Gosling played the ball into him from the left.



United introduced Shola Ameobi for the last quarter and this was the cue for a flurry of changes by the Magpies.



Gael Bigirimana was handed his debut for the black and whites and contract rebel Danny Simpson were amongst the wholesale substitutions.



CHEMNITZER: Pentke, Wachsmuth, Sraber, Fink, Forster, Birk, Stenzel, Wilke, Landeka, Pfeffer, Kegel.



Subs: Schmidt, Bankert, Hornig, Bucher, Semmer, Aydemir, Makarenko, Paul, Baude, Jansen.



UNITED: Elliot, Tavernier (Simpson 70), Perch, Williamson, R. Taylor (Santon 70); Obertan (Jonas 77), Gosling, Abeid (Bigirimana 70), Amalfitano, Vuckic (Shola Ameobi 70), Sammy Ameobi (Ba 77)



Sub not used: Harper.



Ref: Alexander Sather

Crowd: 6,700