'We couldn't afford that': Eddie Howe defends his team selection after 8-0 embarrassment

Newcastle United's youngsters were thoroughly beaten by the Australian A-League All Stars Men's team at the Marvel Stadium on Friday going down to a shocking 8-0 scoreline.

Eddie Howe named a starting XI made up entirely of youngsters with the bench not providing much hope of any experience either with just Kieran Trippier on there over the age of 21 and he was never going to get any game time anyway.

As we said in our post-match write-up, the team selection made a mockery of the whole affair - we get why Eddie did it, but if you're one of those Newcastle fans in Australia who was buzzing to finally get to go and watch your heroes live, and that was the team you saw, we feel for you.

That's not meant to be disrespectful to our youth players, but our fans, who paid good money to watch that, will absolutely have been expecting to see some recognisable faces in action.

Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Howe said it would have been too risky to use his first-team players today

Again, it just goes to highlight just how ridiculous the whole idea was and hopefully it will send a message back home that Financial Fair Play is messing up the game if this is what we have to resort to in order for clubs be able to spend their own money on transfers.

Speaking after the game (via The Shields Gazette), Eddie Howe's team selection was questioned and he was asked if some of his senior players could perhaps have played a part.

“I don't think we could have done, especially when you consider the travelling time that we've had and the quick turnaround that we've had, it would have been too big a risk of injury and we couldn't afford that.

“We gave an opportunity to the younger lads and they found it tough today.

“We have to do better than what we did today. I think too many mistakes were forced by the All-Stars, who played very well, a good performance from them. For us, I think the players individually need to reflect on that and see what they need to do to come back stronger.”

Eddie Howe made a statement whether he was intending to or not

We honestly don't know if this team selection was Eddie Howe trying to make a statement or what, but he certainly did that.

Let's just hope this isn't something that is repeated next year and we save friendlies for the pre-season instead of this forced nonsense.

At least it's all over with now and we can focus on transfers and the Euros.