Beardsley Impressed By Marveaux

By Dan King - Newcastle United Communications Officer

Peter Beardsley was left "very impressed" by Sylvain Marveaux's performance as he scored one and set up two in Newcastle's 5-0 practice match win over Gateshead.

Former Rennes midfielder Marveaux played the whole game at United's Benton-based Training Centre, while Shane Ferguson also completed 90 minutes after limping off in the first friendly of the summer against Darlington.

Haris Vuckic and Nile Ranger were also on target while trialist defenders William Remy and Darnel Situ both did well, but it was the Frenchman who had Reserve Team Coach Beardsley waxing lyrical after the match.

"That was Marveaux's first 90 minutes for the club and I thought he was outstanding," Beardsley told nufc.co.uk.

"A lot of the things he did were simple but effective and I was very, very impressed. He very rarely gave the ball away and that's the sign of a good player.

"Sometimes the hardest pass can be a five yard pass, because you want to be clever, but he was never trying to be clever and I really thought he was outstanding.

"I have to be honest, I hadn't seen loads of him when he was at Rennes but I was very impressed."

Marveaux was not involved as Newcastle drew against Arsenal on the opening day of the season as he continues to regain full match sharpness following the injury which ruled him out for most of last season.

But he became more and more influential against Gateshead, suggesting that he is getting ever-closer to his best.

"He got stronger as the game went on, which is good when you consider he hasn't played a full game since November," Beardsley said. "We asked him a couple of times, was he okay, did he want to come off, but he definitely wanted to play on.

"So I think that was a massive plus. We know what Fergie can do but for me Sylvain was a big bonus for the manager.

"And the good thing was the manager, Johnny Carver and Steve Stone were all there so they could see it with their own eyes."