Union SG 0-4 Newcastle

&c

Now that's more like it! Newcastle's Champions' League campaign caught fire in Belgium in the Wednesday tea time kick off as we blew away Union Saint-Gilloise.

While the stats tell the story of a fairly even game, it was actually an incredible, vibrant performance full of pace, skill and direct attacking from Newcastle.

Our biggest ever European away win came in no small part courtesy of the sublime link up play from Nick Woltemade, thrust into the first team courtesy of Wissa's knee bother and starting to look like prime Berbatov.

His finish - directing a Tonali volley through his legs and across goal - was outrageous, and his frustration at not being allowed to take a penalty no bad thing.

Compare and contrast with Benjamin Sesko taking the last penalty against Grimsby in the cup.

Two good penalties from Gordon to cap a good performance will have done his confidence no harm, likewise an electric performance from Elanga.

And topping off the confidence boosts, a superb bit of link up play from late substitute saw Will Osula play in Barnes to finish coolly.

USG may be Champions' League newcomers, but they showed they're no mugs with an opening round victory at PSV, and make no mistake, this victory should be celebrated.

So off the mark in Europe, now let's try and get this performance translated back to the league.