Newcastle fans react to Saint-Maximin debut, bold comparison made

Allan Saint-Maximin made his Newcastle United on Saturday.

Newcastle United ended their pre-season preparations on Saturday afternoon with a 2-1 home win over Ligue 1 side Saint-Etienne.

The Magpies have endured a turbulent summer full of comings and goings, the biggest of which being Rafael Benitez's exit as manager and Steve Bruce's arrival.

Bruce took charge of his first game as Newcastle manager at St James' Park on Saturday, and he'll have been pleased to end pre-season on a high.

Newcastle took a first half lead when new club-record signing Joelinton chased down a long ball, rounded the goalkeeper and beat two defenders to the ball to score.

Neat work by new signings Allan Saint-Maximin and Jetro Willems down the left allowed Sean Longstaff to pick out his brother Matty, and he launched a superb strike into the net for 2-0.

Saint-Etienne did get one back, as ex-Newcastle defender Mathieu Debuchy notched a late goal, but Newcastle held out for a win to end their pre-season schedule.

With two wins from the last two games, Newcastle will at have at least built some confidence heading into the new season, and fans will be excited by the performance of Saint-Maximin.

The 22-year-old attacker only signed from Nice on Friday, but was brought on for a debut against former club Saint-Etienne, and dazzled fans with his pace and trickery.

Supporters took to Twitter after the game to hail Saint-Maximin, calling him 'rapid', 'a baller' and 'unreal', with a comparison to ex-Magpie maverick Hatem Ben Arfa already put out there after just a cameo display.