Qarabag FK 1-6 Newcastle

&c

Newcastle made it three away wins in three separate competitions in a row with an unadulterated hammering of Azerbaijani Champions Qarabag, making the longest competitive European journey in history worthwhile for the travelling fans.

The visitors got off to the perfect start, Dan Burn threading a lovely through ball into centre forward Anthony Gordon's path and he blasted home.

And before the 10 minute mark it was two, Malick Thiaw nodding home a lovely Trippier cross.

Gordon then converted the first of two penalties, Newcastle for once on the right end of a very soft handball call, then won the ball back immediately from the restart, sprinted through and rounded the keeper to slot home his hat trick goal and second in a minute.

He wasn't done for the half, winning and converting a second penalty in stoppage time.

There was a bit of an argument between him and Trippier, who had asked him to give the ball to someone else, but Gordon stood his ground and hammered home another fantastic penalty.

It unnecessarily carried on at the half time whistle - not a great look when we were a scarcely creditable 5-0 up away from home in a Champions League knockout game.

By half time it genuinely could have been 10, and despite the lack of half time subs, we predictably dropped off and conserved energy.

It led to a disappointing period where we conceded, Nick Pope doing his best impression of me in 5-a-side (I have a permanently damaged finger so tend to generally just get my hand out of the way of any blammies), but the five goal advantage was restored by a curling Jacob Murphy shot that benefited from a deflection.

More could have followed but a truly wondrous night allows us to rotate as much as we want in the second leg next week.

Stunning.