Newcastle began life as a Championship club with a resounding victory in Dublin on Saturday afternoon, rounding off their week-long Irish training camp with an uplifting scoreline.

In front of a sun-drenched Dalymount Park crowd largely rooting for the visitors, Rafa Benitez debuted his five new signings and saw six different United players get on the scoresheet.  

Wearing the new white and purple third kit (along with black armbands marking the imminent second anniversary of the loss of John Alder and Liam Sweeney), United went ahead on 15 minutes through new boy Matt Ritchie's tidy finish.

Aleksandar Mitrovic then won and converted a penalty on the half hour, before further chances were spurned by the lively Rolando Aarons and Ritchie - the latter foraging successfully for the ball on 43 minutes before seeing Shane Supple tip his effort round the post.

United restarted the second half with six replacements and it was notable that Benitez spent part of the break giving them specific guidance on what was expected of them. One of those introduced was Dwight Gayle and he almost made a lightning start, cannoning his shot off the goal frame.

His first and United's third wasn't delayed long though, hooking in from close range on 51 minutes. 

A brief delay followed as Gayle was warmly embraced by a solo pitch invader, but there was no such embrace for Florian Thauvin moments later when he took a pass from Rolando Aarons and tucked the ball home.

Rolando Aarons slotted in a fifth in the 59th minute and Gini Wijnaldum got in on the scoring act soon after arriving on the field, lashing in a 74th minute shot.

By that point the substituted Lascelles had handed the captain's armband to a trimmer-looking Jonjo Shelvey, as United used all 22 named players.

Rookie goalkeeper Paul Woolson warmed up with Karl Darlow at half time but didn't get on, Rob Elliot and Adam Armstrong weren't fit enough and injuries saw Kevin Mbabu and Siem De Jong return to Tyneside ahead of their colleagues. 

Job done, the teams left the pitch to applause and Busker's "Home Newcastle" on the PA as Rafa's squad returned to Tyneside ahead of visits to Doncaster on Wednesday and Lokeren on Saturday.

As meaningless kickabouts go, this was pretty pleasing for Toon watchers, with many similar games over the years lacking any goals or cause for optimism.

Having also prepared for our last Championship season at Carton House, this victory was the equivalent of our 3-0 warm up win over Shamrock Rovers in 2009.

However the circumstances of that game couldn't be more different to 2016, the Magpies arriving that day with "no new owner, no chairman, no manager and no new faces" as we wrote in our match report.

With fee-free deals for Peter Lovenkrands, Marlon Harewood and Zurab Khizanishvili yet to be completed, hasty stand-in boss Chris Hughton's first-ever starting XI put Tamas Kadar and Nile Ranger alongside Kevin Nolan and Joey Barton.

Even the weather was mercifully better today than on that damp and dreary day out at Tallaght, when that pivotal 1-6 pre-season loss at Leyton Orient and the consequent fallout was still a fortnight away. 

Had the Football Pink survived, doctoring one of their recurring headlines would have surely resulted in their report of this game being billed as "It's Liffey Off United! We'll just settle for "It's a Wonderful Lif(fey)" and blame the Guinness.....