Full time: Mallorca 1 Newcastle 0

Kevin Keegan commented:

"We've not risked anybody.

"We are down to one forward at the moment with Alan Smith, but Michael will be back soon and will probably come on for the final half hour of the Valencia game.

"There's a lot of the lads have done a big shift this pre-season. Geremi, Alan Smith, James Milner, Danny Guthrie, Steven Taylor and Claudio Cacapa have played a lot of football.</P>

"They have done it without complaining and have given it their all. Hopefully we'll have a few of the lads back for our games this week."

Three points for a win, plus a point for each goal scored meant that the home side ended up with 11 points. Had there been any draws after 90 minutes, they would have been decided on penalties, with 3 points awarded to the winners. Fri: Hertha Berlin  1  Newcastle     0 RCD Mallorca  4  Hannover 96  2 Sat: Hannover 96  3  Hertha Berlin  1 RCD Mallorca  1  Newcastle     0 RCD Mallorca: 2008 Summer Cup Winners

Waffle

United failed to score for the third successive pre-season game as they were beaten in front of another sparse crowd on Sunday evening - meaning they ended the four -team Mallorca Summer Cup in the wooden spoon position. 

Despite the fact that the home side were on course to win the Cup after a 4-2 success over Hanover on Friday, most of the locals opted to spend their evening at the Bullring.

Palma's counter-attraction was Simply Red and those who went for the gig rather than the match will at least have seen a bona-fide front man putting on a performance.

Rather than Mick Hucknall though, the crowd at the ONO Stadium had to watch bit-part players on both sides who would struggle to get into a tribute band's lineup.

Having sold Euro 2008 winner Daniel Guiza to Fenerebahce, the home side fielded new boy Mario Suarez - the 21 year -old Atletico Madrid loanee duly opening the scoring.     

His seventh minute header from close range ultimately proved enough to give the hosts victory to take the Summer Cup with two victories and five goals giving them eleven points in the event's convoluted scoring system.

Of the visitors there's little new to say, with Mallorca old boy Gutierrez absent by agreement and the hamstring twinge felt by Ameobi against Berlin meaning that Alan Smith was left to plough a lone, miserable forward furrow.

Our post-Berlin comment had been that the absence of Martins, Owen, Viduka and even fringe strikers such as Carroll and LuaLua made this event a total waste of time - and another 90 minutes did nothing to change our view.

A miscued Duff shot and a missed Smith header proved to be our sole efforts on goal in the opening half, while it took until three minutes from full time for the Mallorca 'keeper to dirty his gloves - making a routine save from a Milner free kick.

The evening ended with Smith being partnered by Ryan Donaldson, aged 17 years and three months.

The Academy striker was one of two subs used from a named six by Newcastle - and not one of them has a competitive first team appearance to their name.

And at the other end, two well-timed interceptions from Bassong snuffed out the main threats from a Mallorca side who shuffled their way to a tournament victory.

As had been evident against Hertha, Newcastle proved perfectly capable of playing short passes in front of their opponents, but as for hurting them - forget it. 

Before we become overly miserable, let's recall that this game was played without any contribution from messrs Given, Krul, Beye, Butt, N'Zogbia, Gutierrez, Martins, Faye, Barton, Viduka, Owen - and Coloccini.

Going back to Simply Red, Mallorca's appearance in an all white strip foiled our attempts to sneak in a line about one of the Newcastle players trying to "open up the red box".

With Viduka absent for another month though, the two home friendlies this week against decent opposition look like being painful affairs unless we can involve Messrs Owen and Martin in proceedings.

This tour may have ticked the boxes marked "fitness" and "team bonding", but in terms of getting a vaguely first choice XI on the pitch together was no more valid than the waifs & strays side we fielded at Hull 12 months ago.

PS: With barely 400 fans present, Sunday evening's first game saw Hanover 96 win the Bundesliga battle by beating Hertha Berlin 3-1. The game ended in farce however, as the ONO Stadium became the ONOFF Stadium on exactly 90 minutes and the lights went out completely. 

Power was restored a few moments later, but the referee blew for full time in total darkness.

Biffa