Hartlepool United 1, Newcastle United 4

Jul 21 2008 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

KEVIN Keegan’s last pre-season trip to Victoria Park underlined that teams have plenty to lose and little to gain from friendlies.

But while Newcastle United’s slow-burner of a win was about as meaningful as a Zimbabwean election, the Magpies manager will be hoping Damien Duff’s career on Tyneside can follow a similar path.

When the winger joined Newcastle two years and four managers ago it was to resurrect a career withering in Chelsea’s reserves. Instead, hampered by injury, he has struggled to buck the trend.

With a new wide man joining this summer in Jonas Gutierrez and Duff’s house on the market, many thought we had seen the last of him in black-and-white stripes (or on Saturday, in purple).

But, having so far only added two new faces (Danny Guthrie is the other) to a threadbare squad, Keegan would prefer to keep every player he has. So if leaving his first pre-season game for Newcastle with the match-ball allows Duff’s confidence to match his new fitness levels, Saturday’s game will have been worthwhile.

Newcastle’s bench was full of familiar names, but only to regulars at reserve team fixtures. With Michael Owen and Habib Beye struggling with calf injuries, and Mark Viduka, Geremi and Abdoulaye Faye not yet up to speed because of injury and international duties, Keegan had plenty of fresh faces but little experience to call on.

So not far behind Duff’s hat-trick in the list of positives was the fact there was no repeat of Mark Robinson’s broken leg which prompted Keegan to say in 1994 he would never again bring a side to the ground for a friendly.

Even with so few options, Duff might not have started had “Spiderman” not been tied up in red tape by an evil bureaucrat, but with Gutierrez’s registration incomplete, the 29-year-old seized his chance with three well-taken goals. Duff scored more often in one afternoon than in the rest of his Magpies career.

At times Duff’s gait makes him look like he is struggling and early on he did not seem to be enjoying his first run-out.

But speaking on Duff’s behalf afterwards, Keegan said it was the fittest the winger had felt since joining the club and the lightest he had been since his teens.

Two games ahead in their preparation, the first 40 minutes were all about League One Hartlepool. Matty Robson had the game’s first shot, pulled wide in the eighth minute, and rounded off its first moment of class. The power of his 16th-minute strike beat Shay Given at his near post and came following a good one-two with Joel Porter.

Nicky Butt charged down Gary Liddle’s goalbound effort and Claudio Cacapa put a good tackle on Antony Sweeney in the penalty area, while Obafemi Martins had a couple of moments you might have attributed to pre-season rustiness if you didn’t know he is always that mercurial.

He brilliantly twisted and turned Ben Clark early on only for Arran Lee-Barrett to clear and when Clark later tackled him with the goalkeeper again off his line, Martins’ stabbed shot should not have allowed the defender to clear off the line.

By then Newcastle were in their stride having equalised through Duff. He took a good touch after first-half central midfielder James Milner threaded the ball through and curled a precise shot in.

In the second half Duff touched Guthrie’s pass beyond Lee-Barrett under pressure from Clark, then gave Shola Ameobi’s clever touch a proper send-off three minutes from time. Guthrie’s debut was delayed 45 minutes by sore shins but was worth the wait. More Rob Lee than Paul Bracewell, as well as making Duff’s goal, he scored with a deflection.

MATCH FACTS

HARTLEPOOL UNITED (4-4-2): Lee-Barrett; McCunnie (Foley 55), Clark, Collins (Nelson 69), Humphreys; Sweeney, Jones (Boland 55), Liddle (Power 82), Robson (Monkhouse 75); Porter (Barker 75), Brown (Mackay 85). Subs (not used): Rowell, Budtz.

Goal: Robson 16.

NEWCASTLE UNITED (4-4-2): Given (Forster 65); Edgar (Tozer 63), Taylor, Caçapa (Morris 72), Jose Enrique (Guthrie HT); Duff, Milner, Butt, N’Zogbia; Martins (Ameobi HT), Smith. Subs (not used): Danquah, Donninger, Godsmark, Lough.

Goals: Duff 40, 52, 87, Guthrie 53.

Referee: Graham Laws (Tyne and Wear).

Attendance: 4,249.