Newcastle return to St James's Park against PSV Eindhoven tomorrow night determined to give their fans a decent show.
The trip to Majorca has had plus points and minuses but as Steve Harper quite rightly said after the game on Sunday against the La Liga side that even if Newcastle had won the tournament, that would be of no consolation if Newcastle are mauled at Old Trafford.
And while we all know that the trip to take on Man United is daunting, the players are hardly likely to come out and say we can't or won't win - they have to stay positive and using the trip to Majorca as a measuring stick, I'd say they are confident of making a good start to the new season.
True, Newcastle may not have spent too much in the transfer market but with three in and one more to come at least, once Man U and Arsenal away are done and dusted you don't know.
Judgements on the team, the Mike Ashley era and whether Kevin Keegan can repeat his magic, have to wait.
The team at Old Trafford could be: Given/Harper, Beye, Coloccini, Taylor, N'Zogbia, Gutierrez, Butt, Milner, Duff, Owen, Martins.
There are much worse teams in the Premier League than that and if this is the team that gets a regular run, United can do much better than last term.
Yet you have to accept that starting with PSV, United fans need to see some evidence of that.
Nobody is living in cloud cuckoo land and without making excuses, the heat in Mallorca made it impossible for Newcastle to get any type of momentum going.
Had Newcastle tried to play like they did in the better games last season, you know the 150% frantic pace of Spurs (4-1), Reading (3-0) and Sunderland (2-0), then they'd have lasted five minutes, it was hard enough standing still never mind playing football.
But in the cooler Tyneside air and on home soil, a change in results could start in PSV to help the players keep their current positive state of mind.
ARE YOU GOING TO THE PSV GAME? WHAT'S YOUR OPINION?
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