Newcastle United will be welcomed back to St James' Park by a huge crowd at the weekend - with just a few seats available for Saturday's friendly against Rayo Vallecano.
This will be Newcastle's final warm-up game before the Magpies' season gets back under way next week following the World Cup break. Although there is a quick turnaround between the fixtures, after the Carabao Cup tie against Bournemouth was brought forward by 24 hours because of planned NHS strike action, Eddie Howe will certainly be taking the Rayo friendly seriously. The Newcastle boss, after all, once said that there is 'no such thing as a dead game' for his side.
The game will also form a crucial part of Newcastle's preparations for the restart as the Magpies' first home fixture since the 1-0 win against Chelsea five weeks previously, which was the hosts' final game before the World Cup break, and supporters are clearly itching to back into St James'. Some areas of the stadium at Level 7, admittedly, appear to be 'locked', as it is only a friendly, but there were just 502 seats available online in the Leazes End, three seats in the East Stand and a couple of seats in the Gallowgate as of Tuesday morning along with a further 14 premium tickets in hospitality.
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With a few days still to go, that suggests another remarkable attendance is in the offing after a whopping 87,452 supporters clicked through the turnstiles for the previous friendlies against Atalanta and Athletic Bilbao over the course of two days at St James' last summer. Although it is worth noting Level 7 was opened up for those matches.
When it comes to attending this game, the club have said that any purchased tickets will need to be collected from the box office because of the Royal Mail strikes. "We would strongly advise collecting in advance of matchday as we expect it to be extremely busy," a spokesman added.
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