28 mins The hosts pushed forward down the left channel through Arne Engels and he threaded the ball through to Luke McCowan towards the edge of the United area. Spinning round to face goal with Fabian Schar idling, he played a low pass into the path of Daizen Maeda. He slung it low across the box from the left for Engels, who was upended by Joe Willock as he shaped to take possession.

Engels sent Nick Pope the wrong way from the penalty spot in front of the Jock Stein Stand. 0-1

45 mins Kasper Schmeichel whacked the ball downfield from the edge of his own box and it bounced for the first time around 25 yards from the United goal, well ahead of the advancing Johnny Kenny. Nick Pope dashed off his line and went to head the ball but missed it completely, leaving Kenny to roll it into the unguarded net from around eight yards out.

Our man in the North Stand reports that a decent number of home fans missed the goal as they'd exited following an announcement about the availability of free pies at the food kiosks. 0-2

Half time: Celtic 2 Newcastle 0

52 mins Kenny intercepted a loose ball in the centre circle and laid it off to McCowan advancing to his left. A well-weighted forward pass gave Daizen Maeda the opportunity to outwit Emil Krafth and cross from the left side of the area for Yang Hyun-Jun to beat Martin Dubravka with ease. 0-3

75 mins Having appeared from the bench amid acclaim on his first return to Celtic Park after joining Arsenal in 2019, Kieran Tierney played a one/two with Reo Hatate towards the left hand corner flag. 

Tierney took the return ball and eluded Sandro Tonali before sending over a fine cross that Liam Scales beat Alex Murphy to, heading in from a central position around eight yards out. 0-4

Full time: Celtic 4 Newcastle 0

Eddie Howe said:

"I think pre-season is pre-season and there's no points at stake.

"So as much as we want to play well and win, of course, that's the preferred route that you take. Sometimes you get on the end of these results and scorelines and you can use it for a positive and I think we have to be ready for Aston Villa and that's the only thing in my mind.

"This game will help us get there quicker. Certainly a lot to work on, but we've covered a lot already and there were some good bits in there despite the scoreline. We take a load from that. That was a really good test for us.

"I think the pre-season is designed to really stretch us. This was a test that maybe came a little bit too early for us. We have had a long week in Austria. Not making excuses, by the way, but the lads came into the game jaded, slightly, but it was a great workout for us.

"I think Celtic played very well. I thought we played well in phases of the game. I thought we created a lot of chances. We should have scored a couple of goals. Overall, I think the team would be better for the game.

"I think they are way ahead of us fitness-wise. I think that’s a very useful lesson for us to learn because we usually do that to other teams. The power of our fitness usually shows through in our performance. Against Celtic, it was the other way around. You could tell we were on the receiving end a little bit.

"We were reactive rather than proactive, and that cost us. The goals that we conceded were naturally the poorest aspect of our performance.

"Other than that, I don’t think they had, other than four goals (chuckles), it wasn’t a game where we were consistently under pressure. We more than held our own."

On the absence of Alexander Isak:

"The last thing Alex wants if he is not playing is to be sat in the stand, being under that scrutiny.  

"I don’t think that’s fair to the player, so if he wasn’t going to play today, which we agreed, which we mutually agreed that he needs a little bit more training time, then it’s best he’s not here.

"For any player that (the speculation) is not an easy thing to deal with. It’s not an easy thing to understand when you’re fielding, no doubt from his perspective, phone calls, text messages, players and people asking him because the media now is so strong and the media message goes far and wide and that scrutiny in part, that’s 10% of the reason why he wasn’t here today.

"I just want him to focus on himself and his training ready for next week.

"I think it’s difficult for me to ever give 100% clarity on any player. I’d never do that because it’s football and you never know what could happen. All I can say is that Alex is happy at Newcastle. He loves the players that he plays with, the staff and the team. 

"I’ve never had any issue with him, other than really enjoying seeing his talent and seeing him express himself. Certainly, I’m confident that he’s going to be here at the start of the season.”

On whether the desire to keep Isak was as strong right the way through the club: 

"Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. There is no one who feels any differently. From board to staff to players. We value his qualities, as a person, so it’s very strong.

“We have a few of those players who are irreplaceable because they’re so hard to find, to recruit and to develop. We recognise Alex’s talent and ability and we’re desperate to keep him.

"I have conversations with I’d say 100% of the players and their futures. I’m very, very communicative with them, so whether that’s at the end of the season, whether that’s during pre-season so yes, I’ve had discussions with him but that’s not abnormal.

"I respect a player’s career and how short it is. All the time I will be communicating my desires and wishes to them and what I see and try to help them.

"Alex has been really good, he’s trained really well so far this season so I know there will be lots of noise round it and I can’t really control that but from inside he’s been really good.”

On whether Isak will travel to Asia next week:

"Yeah, absolutely. He's part of our squad. At this moment in time, I expect him to come.

"We love him as a player and a person and want him to stay - and that is right through the club. He's an outstanding talent and a player we cherish."

On debutant Anthony Elanga:

"He was really good and I thought he showed his qualities in the game. He caught the eye and you could see his qualities with his speed. Of course, he's in the very early days of finding out how we play which is sometimes difficult for new players."

On Paul Mitchell's exit:

"I was enjoying the second day of my holiday and that quickly went sour because then suddenly I'm like, 'oh'. I didn't know. It was a complete surprise to me and a big disappointment because we had stability."

On transfers:

"We wanted more (signings in by now). From my perspective, when you’re going into pre-season, you want your squad together from the first day and you want to work on everything you want to work on.

qIt’s difficult to do that later on in pre-season because it takes time for our work to feed into the players. Whatever happens, happens, and we have to adapt. I’m confident we will try our very best to do it, but I’ve got no guarantees beyond that.

"We’re working as hard as we can every day to strengthen the squad.

"It's been a really frustrating summer. We've been very close to signing several players and for different reasons - there's not one theme why we haven't signed more - we've ended up missing out on a few who would have made a difference.

"The one most important factor in any transfer is the player has to want to come to Newcastle. We're a very proud club and are proud of what we do... any player has to feel that. If they don't... I don't think it's a healthy transfer.

"I'd say I'm hopeful rather than confident because we're not in control of the market or agents, players and other clubs. I can assure everybody we are 100% on it and trying to do things quickly."

On the departed Sean Longstaff:

"I can't speak highly enough of him and his contribution, We're going to miss him greatly, he leaves a big hole in our squad. You can't keep everyone on the journey but this is sad timing for us because he still has so much to offer."

On the opposition:

"We’ve had an intense week and we looked a little bit jaded. But it was great for our preparation. Celtic were way ahead of us fitness-wise and sharpness-wise.

"It was a great atmosphere and stadium to play in. It was a good standard of football for so early in pre-season. Whoever Celtic draw in the Champions League will be in for some tough games.”

Brendan Rodgers said: 

"It was always going to be a really good exercise against a top team and top players, and I thought the boys were very, very good.

"Naturally we’re after fitness and to develop that, but some of the football and the ideas we’ve been talking about and working on over the pre-season, we can see that and it was very impressive.

"What you have to do is be really good with the ball and be really technically good, and that’s what we were. Technically, we were so good in the game and then found our little patterns and that’s when we got into good spaces.

"We saw it against Sporting. In the modern game you get lots of man-to-man play, so have to deal with that and cope with that pressure and handle the ball, and then play through it.

"It was really good play – brilliant by Johnny Kenny, how he received the ball and took it on to the side and then we got away with the two wingers and ended up scoring a very good goal.

"We saw last pre-season and obviously when you’re playing against a team from the English Premier League, you’re playing against one of the top teams, especially Newcastle – the size of the club and how they’ve been building with Eddie who’s done a brilliant job there, so you know you’re going to face a real stern test of all your qualities, and we saw that today.”

PS: The Daily Record live match blog contained a few wee nuggets, suggesting that the fourth goal meant the game "turned into a total scudding" and that "Celtic skelped their bahookies". 

We did like a couple of their punning headlines also, particularly "Geordie sore" and "Newcy frown".