Newcastle United have beaten Scottish Champions Celtic 4-1 in their pre-season friendly match at St. James Park on Thursday evening.

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

Celtic new signing Scott Brown pulled a goal back for Celtic in the second-half and it was Newcastle keeper Shay Given, who made some great saves during the second period and kept Celtic from advancing, with James Milner sealing an emphatic 4-1 win for Newcastle United in injury-time.

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

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, new signing Massimo Donati having a long-range attempt that went well high and wide, and 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.

Celtic were far stronger in the second-half, but were restricted by the deep defending from Newcastle, but as the half progressed they began to make incisions into the home defence.

Obafemi Martins was replaced by James Troisi in the 65th minute, with Celtic’s Kurawski being replaced by Kenny Miller minutes later which seemed to work to the Scottish Champions advantage.

Celtic’s second-half pressure paid off when, in the 72nd minute, new signing Scott Brown pulled a goal back with a superb strike past Shay Given after an equally decent cross from Aiden McGeady to make it 3-1.

Brown almost scored again just two minutes later with a cheeky back-heel at close range that Given did well to deflect across goal.

The pressure from Celtic in the second-half was equal to that of Newcastle in the first period and Given once again proved his worth, saving well from a shot from substitute Kenny Miller after he broke through the Magpies defence.

But despite their pressure, Newcastle sealed the win in the first minute of injury-time with a low strike from the edge of the penalty area by James Milner which went in at the near-post, after being set-up nicely by Charles N'Zogbia.

The game finished 4-1 to Newcastle United, with Magpies boss Sam Allardyce ecstatic to win his first home match against such stiff competition.

Former Chelsea FC defensive midfielder Geremi was named man of the match after an excellent home debut for Newcastle United.

Newcastle Utd v Celtic FC Starting Line-Up's - CLICK TO OPEN