The surprise leader as we rank every Newcastle United player by minutes played in pre-season

Newcastle United rounded off a successful pre-season campaign with a 2-1 win over La Liga side Athletic Bilbao.

Eddie Howe’s side faced seven opponents in pre-season - starting with Gateshead and ending with Bilbao at St James’ Park.

In between, the Magpies faced 1860 Munich and Mainz 05 in Austria before taking on Burnley and Benfica in Portugal.

United hosted Serie A outfit Atalanta on Friday and Bilbao less than 24 hours later, which attracted a combined crowd of over 86,000.

Newcastle won five and lost two but as we all know, results in don’t matter in pre-season.

It’s all about the minutes and here, NewcastleWorld ranks each Magpies player in order of minutes played:

5. Jay Turner-Cooke - 0 minutes

Travelled to Austria and Portugal but didn’t get off the bench. Photo: Nick Taylor/Liverpool FC

A late substitute against Atalanta on Friday. | Getty Images

Came off the bench in injury time versuus Athletic Bilbao. Photo: Frank Reid

Played against Burnley and briefly came off the bench against Bilbao. | Getty Images