Tottenham Hotspur 1-1 Newcastle United (Newcastle win 5-4 on penalties): Magpies start post-season tour with a win down under

Newcastle United needed penalties to get past Ange Postecoglu-managed Tottenham Hotspur in the first game of their post-season tour in Australia after it was level after 90 minutes.

Alexander Isak’s equaliser on the cusp of half-time cancelled out James Maddison’s 32nd minute strike in front of over 78,000 passionate fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

The Magpies will remain in Melbourne to take on the A-League All Stars at the Marvel Stadium on Friday.

Despite an end-to-end opening few minutes, the 15 minutes that followed confirmed what most fans knew this game was - a meaningless friendly on the other side of the world to pick up some cash ahead of the summer transfer window.

Image: Getty

The first real chance fell the way of Spurs when Pape Matar Sarr found space on the edge of the area, only for his deflected effort to be easily claimed by Nick Pope.

Just two minutes later, a poor clearance was picked up by Maddison inside the box who skipped past Emil Krafth before firing into the back of the net.

There was cause for concern for England fans after Kieran Tripper was taken off early, the 33-year-old was named in Gareth Southgate’s preliminary squad for EURO 2024 in Germany.

Pope was called into action again at 40 minutes when Son’s cross found Brennan Johnson who forced Newcastle’s number 22 into a quick reaction stop.

As the game entered first-half stoppage time, a Newcastle counter attack saw Bruno Guimaraes thread a ball through to Jacob Murphy who’s initial effort was parried away by Brandon Austin as far as Isak who cooly finished from six yards.

One notable appearance was Australian international Garang Kuol who came on in the 71st minute for Callum Wilson.

The game ended in a draw after 90 minutes, meaning penalties would decide the winner.

Substitute goalkeeper Mark Gillespie proved to be the hero of the shootout after he saved Spurs’ first penalty taken by Bryan Gil.

Seven other high-quality spot-kicks followed before Harrison Ashby cooly finished to give Newcastle the win on his return from his loan spell at Swansea.