Newcastle Utd 3-0 Celtic Halftime Report Pre-Season Friendly: Obafemi Martins Opens, Albert Luque Scores Twice v Scottish Champs

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Newcastle Utd 3-0 Celtic Halftime Report Pre-Season Friendly: Obafemi Martins Opens, Albert Luque Scores Twice v Scottish Champs

Submitted by Scott Harkness on Thu, 26/07/2007 - 20:41.

Newcastle United have taken a 3-0 lead into halftime against Celtic in their pre-season friendly match at St. James Park on Thursday evening.

Obafemi Martins opened the scoring for Newcastle in the 11th minute, with two goals from Albert Luque in the first-half to give Newcastle a deserved lead at the break.

New Newcastle boss Sam Allardyce - making his first home appearance as Magpies manager - couldn’t have hoped for a better start against the Scottish Champions, managed by Gordon Strachan.

The home side came out of the traps quickly, with Obafeme Martins opening the scoring in the 11th minute, after receiving the ball in the Celtic penalty area and smashing his shot on the turn past Artur Boruc in the Celtic goal.

The game was end-to-end, with chances on both sides, but it was the home-side that were in command during the first-half.

Shots from former Chelsea star Geremi and fellow new signing David Rozehnal came close to extending the lead for Allardyce's team.

Celtic had chances themselves, with Maciej Zurawski breaking through on a couple of occassions, but failing to really test Shay Given in the Newcastle goal, with new signing Massimo Donati having a long-range attempt that went well high and wide, with Aiden McGeary and Jan Vennegor of Hesselink both testing Given.

But it was Newcastle who were making the most of their chances and extended their lead when James Milner made a run down the left-wing, turning the Celtic defence before crossing the ball straight into the path of the onrushing Albert Luque, who broke free of the offside trap to make it 2-0 to Newcastle.

Albert Luque scored his second goal of the match in the 42nd minute, from a pinpoint cross from Nolberto Solano to the far post, where Luque was perfectly positioned to side-foot the ball in between Boruc and a sliding Celtic defender to the delight of the home-crowd.