Following their week-long training camp/initiation song session in the La Manga sunshine, the Matthias Jaissle era of Newcastle United kicked off with a win and a trophy in Valencia on Saturday evening.

Birthday boy Malick Thiaw stepped up to collect the Trofeu Taronja after his side recovered from conceding in the opening stages; a brace from the rebooted Yoane Wissa enough to defeat a makeshift home side who played with ten men for more than half of the game.

Debutant goalkeeper Lukas Hornicek was beaten from distance by a fourth minute strike from Filip Ugrinic, before Anthony Elanga was denied an equaliser by a questionable offside flag.

Jaissle's Magpie bow then took a further turn for the worse on 39 minutes, when his Swedish winger was stretchered off after a challenge by Jose Gaya more befitting a bullfight than a football match. 

That assault prompted a fierce reaction from the visitor's bench and Elanga's colleagues; the former Spanish international defender rightly shown a straight red card. He'd earlier got away with a foul in the area on Osula that looked worthy of a penalty award.

The hosts reached half-time in front but it only took seven minutes for substitute Wissa exploiting a terrible back pass by Guido Rodriguez, tucking the ball past Stole Dimitrievski in the home goal.

With Sean Steur again looking assured in midfield after the break, fellow substitute Bazoumana Toure had a fine half down the left and put in some excellent crosses.

Wissa headed narrowly over the bar from an offside position before claiming his and United's second of the game in the 76th minute. He and Toure broke from the halfway line and exchanged passes before the number nine tucked the ball into an empty net with the 'keeper stranded.

The Magpies should have wrapped up victory on when Jacob Murphy met Toure's tempting cross from the left, only to balloon his first-time shot into the upper tier of the stand adjacent to the travelling support. Victory was then secured after two late home chances went begging.

With Tino Livramento, Fabian Schar, Lewis Hall, Dan Burn and Alex Murphy all indisposed for various reasons, rookie Leo Shahar began at right back, while U21 defender Miodrag Pivas was selected on the opposite flank. Valencia's starting defence had a similarly unfamiliar look.

The circumstances of Jaissle's debut win may have been favourable but there were bright spots, notably the willingness of debutant Toure to prowl down the wing and glimpses of the Brentford-era Wissa, not last season's facsimile. fellow new boy Bamba was less to the fore in a deeper role.

The opportunity of playing for one of his fellow countrymen sadly didn't look to have increased the effectiveness of Nick Woltemade however.

Full time saw the Newcastle squad applaud the away fans as was the custom under the previous management, the new coach resisting the encouragement of both Murphy and Joelinton, content instead content to remain in the pack of players at the end of his first week.

With two weeks and three games before the real stuff, the scale of the challenge facing Howe's successor and the necessity of adding to a depleted squad remains clear.

Some clues as to replacing the goals and assists that have gone may have come his way in the Mestalla, but in areas of leadership and organisation we remain visibly lacking. Some of those will come as the new-look squad beds in - notably Hornicek's communication breakdowns that almost ended up with Sven Botman registering another own goal - while others will require recruitment.