Alan Pardew said:

Pre-match: "It's obvious, looking at our squad, that strikers is an area we are looking to strengthen. If I'm honest, we are looking worldwide in terms of making sure we get the right players.

"Not really much has changed for me. I've lost Derek Llambias, who was doing the transfers here, and I've gained Joe Kinnear. Hopefully Joe and our team here, and our board, can get a player over the line.

"People put two and two together and make five, really. I'm the manager of this football club and I'll make sure I manage it as I've always done at all my clubs, with our foot firmly planted forward and trying to take the game to other teams and trying to play an exciting brand of football.

"Last year we let ourselves down a little on that front. Hopefully we can show a better side to us at the start of this campaign."

Post-match: "I was happy with that. 

"I want our levels to be super high and it has shown tonight that our fitness levels are high. We also had a few bonuses, Haris (Vuckic) was terrific on his return, Paul Dummett is knocking on the door of the first team. He could not have done any more, he was man of the match.

"We are all going to Portugal. It will be the first team that are all back now, so we are looking to take our strongest squad with us. It's too early for some of them to play on Saturday, these guys out here tonight are way ahead of the others. It will be a similar sort of side that plays the first game that played here. 

"They will get a little piece of that in the second game, a few of the internationals who played in the summer will come in I hope. Hopefully in Portugal the internationals can get up to the fitness levels of some of these guys. It was nice to see the way we played here.

"I said to the players before the last game of the season that this pre-season would be the toughest I would ever put on. I think it showed how tough it has been by the 11 starters here - they looked fit and sharp. At times, we really did open Motherwell up.

"I’ve always set my teams up to play but when you are under the pressure we were last year you can look staid. We were just getting through games last year, like the QPR game – we just got through it.

"But you could see it was like Benfica, the shackles were off a bit, and there was no pressure. The players responded with what I want to see, which is good football and getting between the lines. I think the one thing that was reflected in the performance was that the shackles were off a bit. 

"The pressure we were under last season wasn’t there and it was the same for our fans. It was great to see them and be able to say ‘hello’ in a more relaxed manner than we ended up with last year. On top of that, we had a really good performance.”

On signings:

"I would expect to be down the road with a transfer when we are in Portugal. I am hoping that Joe (Kinnear) and Lee Charnley get something over the line."

Absent from proceedings for a variety of reasons were: Tim Krul, Hatem Ben Arfa, Davide Santon, Shola Ameobi, Jonas Gutierrez and Massadio Haidara (fitness), Fabricio Coloccini, Cheick Tiote, 
Mathieu Debuchy, Yohan Cabaye, Gael Bigirimana and Curtis Good (late return due to international duty), Ryan Taylor (injury), Papiss Cisse (club dispute), Dan Gosling and Conor Newton (tbc)

This was a first senior victory on Scottish soil in seven attempts (all friendlies), going back to a 1-0 success against Hearts at Tynecastle in August 1995. The scorer that night was Peter Beardsley and he was present here at Fir Park, assisting fellow coach John Carver during the pre-match drills. Whether that unexpected return to first team duties is more than a one-off is unclear.

From past experience there's no real value in drawing conclusions from this game. Doubtless this was "a good workout" for those involved as former coach Tommy Craig used to say, but in terms of a starting XI for August 19th it's all fairly irrelevant, with any positives to be taken from the scoreline and performance needing to be set against the fact Motherwell were poor, verging on dreadful.   

Seeing a few goals may have just lightened the mood a touch for those present of a Tyneside persuasion  but storm clouds continue to gather on the horizon. Optimism remains an elusive commodity, bewilderment is in vogue and the long-range forecast suggests increasing anger, sadness and a deep depression settling over the North East. Welcome to 2008. Again.   

Biffa