Alan Pardew said:

"The opposition start their season next week – and that showed. I know they are a couple of levels below us. But they looked sharper.

"I was still happy with some of the performances. Sammy did well up top and scored a perfectly good goal. We showed some neat touches and our technical stuff was fine.

"Offensively we’re a little bit at sea. As you would expect the pitch was slow. We could not get the ball out of our feet and get it to our pace men. But it was a good work-out.

"There was no trouble, and that was pleasing. There were no silly fouls, or no injuries. We now have a harder game coming up and we will play a more experienced side in that one. Nobody did themselves any harm.”

Having kept their fans in the dark until the last possible moment before confirming the pre-season plans, United served up an eminently forgettable display for those diehards who made it to Eastern Germany on Friday evening for this meeting with a Third Division side.

At least what the Chemntizer website reporter termed as "very British" weather ie rain had relented well before kickoff and sunshine had broken through the heavy clouds by the time United strode out in their new home kit to pose for a joint team photograph with the opposition.

 

Described by some observers as a Juventus-styled, design, our first impressions were that Puma's second attempt at clothing Newcastle United isn't far removed from the Adidas model of 2009/10.  That's evident from behind, with a large white area across the back, shoulders and collar, not helped tonight by an absence of squad names.

Alan Pardew's side are almost a month behind the opposition in terms of their preparations and at times on Friday it showed in front of a good-humoured crowd at their slightly idiosyncratic Gellert Stadium, soon to be remodelled into some bland Teutonic approximation of Chesterfield's ground.

United lined up with Rob Elliot in goal, James Tavernier at right back, Ryan Taylor left back, Mike Williamson and James Perch in central defence, Mehdi Abeid and Dan Gosling central midfield, Gabriel Obertan right midfield, Romain Amalfitano left midfield and Sam Ameobi & Haris Vuckic up front.

Debutant Amalfitano was prominent in the opening exchanges and created the first notable chance of the evening on five minutes, winning a corner that he took and picked out Haris Vuckic with. However he was unable to test the home 'keeper and headed harmlessly over.

Playing at a higher tempo, Chemnitz took the lead soon after and went in search of a second - Elliot palming away a goalbound header from a free-kick.

United belatedly went on the offensive for the first time midway through the opening half, with some trickery from Sam Ameobi played in Dan Gosling. However an offside flag was raised before his shot hit the post, to the jeers of the Chemnitzer fans, who had chimed in with some call and response post-goal chants when prompted by the PA man (shouting out the scorer's name, score etc). 

Sam Ameobi then had the ball in the net after 36 minutes when the ball fell to him from a Ryan Taylor free-kick (over the Berlin wall?) but the flag was raised again - one of a handful of dubious decisions over the course of the night that irritated the Newcastle boss and several of his players.

What proved to be Newcastle's best period of the game then saw James Tavernier advance down the right and send over a deep cross that Gosling caught with a rising half volley that Penke in the home goal was forced to tip over. Vuckic then came close when his smart shot was bound for the top corner, only for the home keeper to tip it behind for what proved to be another wasted flag kick.

United emerged after the break unchanged and there was little to report from either side before the industrious Romain Amalfitano sent over a corner in the 58th minute that the Mohican-sporting Ameobi headed narrowly over.

It was almost all-square on the hour when Penke missed a backpass and had to scamper back and hack the ball off the line. Ameobi and Vuckic then combined down the left to set up Gosling, but what looked to be a goalbound shot was deflected just wide, with the corner squandered.

The expected raft of United replacements finally came just after the hour with a quadruple substitution seeing the Ameobis (The Chemnitzer Brothers?) paired up front, David Santon and Danny Simpson taking over at full back and Gael Bigirimana deployed in a central midfield role.

On an incident-free night, Sam Ameobi was cautioned for what looked like dissent, while a home player later followed him into the book for a nothing tackle. 

Demba Ba and Jonas Gutierrez then replaced Sam Ameobi and Obertan but neither could inspire a late leveller, with Ba putting his only half chance into orbit. He had previously played here in a DB Cup game for Hoffenheim, finishing on the winning side but also failing to find the net.

All the usual lines about a good workout etc. were rightly trotted out and despite losing, United can be adjudged in a better place than where we were after our 2011 opener - when a 0-0 draw in Kansas was overshadowed by an injury to Hatem Ben Arfa, not to mention the work permit farce that left various squad members at home or gate-crashing the reserves tour of Holland.

Amalfitano looked eager to be involved in what was his first 90 minute outing for some time - after having hardly featured in 2012 for previous side Reims. Meanwhile, both Vuckic and Sam Ameobi made successful returns having missed the closing stages of last season due to injury.

This ended Chemnitzer's pre-season programme ahead of their Bundesliga Third Division opener on Saturday week and after posting cricket scores against local amateur sides, this game saw them emulate a single goal victory over Czech Second Division side FK Usti last weekend - not to mention keeping clean sheets in all seven friendly matches. 

United now return to their training camp in Munich before making the 300 mile trek to Bavaria for Monday night's friendly against Monaco in Landsberg Am Lech.

PS: Of little consequence to most was the news blackout from NUFC over the staging of this game and others during a German training camp. For those intending to travel though, the piecemeal accumulation of information from various foreign language websites was  

NUFC finally confirmed that they were playing Chemnitz on this ground at this time less than 36 hours before kick off, commenting via their website that "due to the cancellation of the Vodacom Challenge tournament in South Africa, arrangements for the games in Germany and Hungary were made in less time than desirable, which has resulted in the late confirmation of these matches." 

That partially allayed suspicions that the lack of information was designed to deter Newcastle fans from travelling to Germany and thus rule out any possibility of crowd trouble ahead of our return to UEFA competition next month.

However that late confirmation line doesn't hide the fact that Chemnitz began ticket sales over a week earlier, the match programme included match-related Alan Pardew quotes and the Chemnitz fan shop stocked commemorative match pennants and scarves - all of which takes some prior preparation and co-operation from NUFC. So much for improving communication.      

United subsequently denounced the bill poster to the Stasi

Biffa