By Anthony Marshall - Newcastle United Club Reporter

First team coach Steve Stone was delighted with Newcastle's attacking display against Monaco on Monday night.

The Magpies may only have triumphed 1-0 in the friendly fixture - thanks to Demba Ba's first half header - but the scoreline could have been much more emphatic had the likes of Shola Ameobi, Mehdi Abeid, Gabriel Obertan, Dan Gosling and Ba taken further chances.

But while the goals may not have been flowed, Stone was happy that the opportunities were created in the first place and keen to point out the many positives from a tough evening's work.

"It was a good progression from what we had the other day against the German side, you could see that," he told nufc.co.uk.

"Monaco were at a similar level to us in terms of where they are in their pre-season, and that worked out well for us.

"What pleased me the most was simply that the players looked better than they were against Chemnitzer.

"The lads have all come back in great shape - our tests show that - but in the first game your touch is always all over the place.

"You hope that doesn't last too long. You realise they need to get their summer out of their legs and they haven't seen a ball for a long time - especially in a match situation. That first game is normally a poor one and it's expected.

"If it happens in the second game you tend to worry a little bit, but we progressed really nicely. There was some really good football played at times, we created plenty of chances and it could have been more.

"That was the pleasing thing - against Chemnitzer we hardly got any shots off, whereas against Monaco we looked a real threat and had a better ratio of shots on goal."