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:

29. Matt Targett - 360 minutes

United’s summer signing played every minute presented to him in pre-season. | Getty Images

Recently signed a new one-year contract extension. Photo: Gualter Fatia

A strong pre-season from Longstaff, who has fit and sharp throughout. | Getty Images

Much needed gametime for Trippier after missing a large part of last season with a broken foot. Photo: Getty