Newcastle United missed the chance of a morale-boosting friendly win, losing the Visit Malta Cup to Strasbourg on penalties at St James' Park after a defensive error infuriated manager Matthias Jaissle.
Jaissle furious at sloppy goal
Jacob Ramsey gifted the ball to Strasbourg, allowing Gessimine Yassine to arrow home the leveller and deny Jaissle his first home win. Jaissle spun around and turned the air blue as he cursed the defensive error and fumed over a host of wasted chances in the second half before watching the French side lift the trophy.
Jaissle lined up with a 4-2-3-1 formation with Jacob Ramsey and Aladji Bamba - making his home debut - as his two holding midfielders against the Ligue 1 side that finished eighth last term.
Early chances and the opening goal
Newcastle threatened after two minutes when Jacob Murphy clipped in a fine cross from the right with William Osula climbing high before forcing a superb stop out of Filip Jorgensen at the Leazes End. On 10 minutes Samuel Amo-Ameyaw motored down the left before curling a shot at Ewen Jaouen who held firm in front of the Gallowgate End.
On 19 minutes, Murphy tried a similar move to the one that led to Saturday's goal, looking for Dan Burn, who headed forcefully at goal but sent it just wide. Strasbourg threatened on 27 minutes after a corner in which Yoann Becker stabbed an effort at goal, but the ball clipped the bar. Moments later, it fell for Sam Amo-Ameyaw, but he poked the ball wide.
Four minutes later, Newcastle missed a glaring chance as Osula cut the ball back across from the left before Bazoumana Toure sent his effort screeching over the bar. With 10 minutes of the first half left, Joe Willock tried a long range effort but Jorgensen pushed the ball to safety, and the ex-Arsenal man was in again two minutes later, only to be denied from close range.
Newcastle did grab the lead on 38 minutes when Murphy crossed from the right, and Osula buried his chance from the six-yard box. It was a fantastic move as Fabian Schar found Leo Shahar on the right before his fine pass to Murphy allowed him to run into space and clip a fine ball into the centre for Osula who could not miss.
Wasted chances and the equaliser
The Danish star had another big chance at the end of stoppage time when he drove low at Jorgensen, but the keeper saved well again. Osula was presented with another big opportunity eight minutes into the second half but he blazed over. Just two minutes before the hour mark, Osula got in again but with just the keeper to beat he sent his effort wide.
Those chances would be rue as Ramsey - who had been faultless until the 69th minute - dilly-dallied on the edge of the box and Strasbourg sub Gessime Yassine was allowed to fire into the top right-hand corner. After Ramsey had lost the ball, Giovanni Reyna rolled a simple pass into the path of Yassine who picked his spot from 12 yards with Jaouen unable to keep it out despite being a full stretch.
Jaissle cursed his side and turned the air blue as his side conceded another avoidable goal, the third across the weekend at St James' Park with Liverpool's visit looming large. Yassine weaved his way into the box and forced Jaouen into a superb block low down in stoppage time, but the game would go to spot-kicks.
Penalty shoot-out
Reyna missed (Jaouen clawed it to safety), Osula blazed over, Yassine scored 1-0 (sent Jaouen the wrong way), Ramsey blazed over, Amougou scored 2-0 (slotted perfectly past the keeper), Neave scored 2-1 (buried it into the bottom corner), Del Blanco's penalty was saved by the feet of Jaouen, Toure scored 2-2 (a little stutter before slamming home confidently), Diop scored 3-2 (just squeezed it past Jaouen in the right-hand corner), and Bamba missed (his penalty thudded against the right-hand post).
Attendance: 34,076. Referee: Anthony Backhouse (Heads Nook).
