(46) Freidruch for Ayhan
(46) Fuchs for Kolasinac
(46) Hoger for Neustadter
(46) Multhaup for Prince Boateng
(62) Avdijaj for Choupo-Moting
(71) Borgmann for Aago
(71) Itter for Meyer

Referee: Thorsten Kinhofer (Herne) A 46 year-old top-flight whistler whose day job is a local authority accountant.

Attendance: 20,000 - barely one third full, despite up to five times that number milling around at the fan day outside. The local paper attributed the poor match attendance to a saturation effect from the World Cup and holidays, but if Schalke fans were vacationing, who was at the fan day?

NUFC had sold 600 tickets in advance, with others paying on the day and dotted around the Arena.

The bars again did very good business and further attempts were made at appropriating Crowded House's "Weather With You" to honour our new midfied hope ("everywhere you go, always take Cabellla with you").

As had been the case the previous day, the Arena DJ broke off from his playlist of pop hits and rock classics to play "Local Hero" in honour of the Magpies. AC/DC and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers both remained popular, but there was no hint of Seven Nation Army - is that not compulsory?

 

The home supporters were also treated to one of their own anthems on Saturday which had veered dangerously towards the territory of schlager music, with a nasty touch of oompah. However the souped up version aired on the Sunday was slightly better, presumably by Essen's number one uk Subs tribute band or something similar. A check in one of numerous club shops revealed volume after volume of similar CDs, alongside a bewildering amount of other branded merchandise - does any other club sell a crested frying pan?  Pleasingly, a range of embroidered club patches were also available, catering for local denim jacket owners along with some top-class gnomes.  Our favourite item remains the rubber duck though, which comes complete with miner's helmet and is finished with authentic "coal dirty."

And as on previous visits to Germany, the announcement of home players took the form of the announcer giving the first name and the crowd shouting out the family name. By the time the last few substitutions were made though, enthusiasm levels had noticeably waned - although it is entirely possible that many fans didn't actually know what the names of the reserves were...

Following the events of Saturday, no matchday ticket sales for either the Newcastle or West Ham section took place - but there was nothing to stop anyone buying a ticket for another part of the stadium and simply wandering where they pleased. 

After the avoidable daftness of Saturday, there were no incidents of note on Day two of the tournament, one West Ham loon briefly appearing in the Newcastle standing section to unfurl his flag, but failing to get any response at all.

The poorness of Sam Allardyce's side was enough to deter some Hammers followers from attending at all on Sunday - or at least tearing themselves away from the bar to watch the game live. And after throwing beer over themselves in a vain attempt at entertainment, the East Londoners began to drift away before full time in their opening game.

Schalke paid tribute to John Alder and Liam Sweeney before kickoff with what was probably intended to be a minute's silence, but became a minute's applause - with those West Ham fans remaining in the Arena seen to join in.

Some entertainment was provided when a stray match ball ended up in behind the goal and was hoofed and headed back and forward between Newcastle and West Ham fans before a steward managed to take possession. A second instance of this later in the day then saw the ball drop towards the home fans in the East Stand, only for one of them to pull off a one-handed catch  - made all the more noteworthy by the fact he had a pint in the other hand. Not a drop was spilt.

Following the full time whistle, a number of the Newcastle players made their way to the away sections and chucked in their sweat-sodden shirts, with Elliot also tossing away his gloves.  

Day 2 and the roof remained open

The upper tier of the East Stand was open today  - and the lower much fuller

The standing away section

Itchy feet meant a relocation for this view from the upper tier

we reckoned Rolando deserved this - but Schalke had no photo of him to display

Home fans in the Nord Curve

Terraces: the numbered plates are replaced by individual metal seats for European fixtures

Sunday also saw the staging of the club's annual Schalke-Tag, a season- opening free festival/ celebration outside the Arena that attracted a claimed attendance of 100,000.

Das hoppings

Adopt these in the Premier League and Obertan would be a world-beater

I thought they were twinned with Newcastle, not Hartlepool

Miss Schalke meets die Chuckle Brüder

The traditional Teutonic pursuits of eating and drinking were high on the agenda, along with penalty shootouts, a bouncy castle replica of the stadium, helicopter rides, tours of the adjacent training centre, players posing for pictures and kicking footballs into the crowd, live music and the crowning of Miss Schalke!