Gateshead: Eddie Howe has revealed his ‘frustrations’ with his transfers and admits Newcastle United may have to ‘get creative’ in order to produce a team that can compete on four fronts.

So far this summer, the Magpies have only signed one senior player ready for the first team, Sandro Tonali, and are looking to add at least two or three more to the ranks before the summer trading window closes on September 1.

While Howe had previously admitted his delight in defeating Champions League-rushing Tonali from AC Milan, he expressed his team’s “need” for additions, rather than a managerial desire. And Howe challenged the owners of PIF to find a way to improve his black and white plot.

Speaking after the Magpies’ 3-2 friendly win over nearby neighbors Gateshead, Howe said: “I’m patient and I understand the standards we operate by but I also know our needs. For me, it’s not about us wanting to do it; we need to do it. And being a coach, I want them to be available now, so it’s all that stuff together.

“I can share that we want to bring players to the football club but they have to be the right people and they have to be at the right level. We’re working hard to do that. We’ve worked hard all summer. It’s hard to get good players, as with any club.” But we will keep moving forward.”

Squad depth will be key for Howe and Newcastle – and given the players they have at Gateshead’s disposal it’s easy to see why the head coach is keen to add. For the first time as a United manager, he admitted he was frustrated with the transfer landscape, with no more deals done.

Howe said: “It’s huge for us this year. With the competitions we’re in, we’ve got three games a week, we need to be able to rotate the squad but to be able to bring in players of equal caliber.

“That’s what we’re looking to do but we know we have a lot of work to do. Players are expensive these days. We work within FFP guidelines and it’s very challenging for us. We may need to be creative, but we’re trying to look at every avenue possible to make the club more powerful.

“We have a very strict budget that we try to work within. Always with FFP there are some things you can get creative with but we don’t have a huge budget to work with.

“Sometimes there have been frustrations and difficult days. You want the bottom line and the best possible team. We know the challenges we face. Over the summer I went through all the emotions. I’m very happy that Sandro came in but we know we need more.”

While it seemed like dark clouds were brewing for Hu and his off-field transfer committee, it didn’t get much better as the Magpies got back to work.

Thunder and lightning struck Gateshead International Stadium on a blustery afternoon in Tyneside, but the Magpies narrowly escaped a shock to the system, overturning a two-goal half-time deficit to win 3-2.

Marcus Dinanga and Stephen Wern sacked Gateshead, known colloquially as Heed by Geordie’s followers, to take the lead 2–0, before a second half rush from Elliott Anderson, Allan Saint-Maximin and junior Guy Turner-Cook saw the Howe Magpies win.

Howe was without six first-team players, apart from the Magpies international squad, for the short trip across the River Tyne, with Nick Pope, Joe Willock, Emil Krafth, Jamal Lascelles, Jacob Murphy and Paul Dummett all left out.

It was the same old system – a smooth 4-3-3 – for Howe but some unusual positions, with players like the less-seen Jamal Lewis playing on the left wing, youngster Remy Savage making his debut and sending skipper Kieran Trippier into midfield.

This looked like a walk in the garden for Newcastle in the early stages against National League, English fifth-league, opponents.

Sean Longstaff, Matt Ritchie and Lewis each had chances to open the scoring, but they squandered chances into the net. Twelve minutes of dominance was then broken when a mistake on the edge of the area opened the door for Dinanga to go past Carl Darlow 1-0.

After an exhilarating and quick-opening 15, the game quickly drained its intensity and pace, but that didn’t stop Gateshead from pressing a home run moments before the break as Wearne jumped on a Dan Burn error to double the lead.

It was far from the first of a smooth 45 comeback after a truncated summer for the amateur men.

In the second inning, Regig saw Saint-Maximin put left, and Anderson fell into the role of center batsman. It was a move that paid dividends within four minutes as the Frenchman tacked Jordy to reduce the arrears.

Just before the hour mark, Anderson returned the favor by putting one on the plate for Saint-Maximin, who slotted the equalizer into an empty net after another defensive error in increasingly difficult circumstances.

A slew of changes saw both sides once again lose the game, with United’s Loris Karius and Bern’s Under-21 side feeling the pinch.

And it was that youngster who prevailed that day when Louis Miley’s nimble feet opened up space in the middle and Turner Cook fired a deft shot into the area to make it 3-2.

On the performance himself, Howe added: “It was a really good pre-season game. You want to win, of course, and play well, but that was a really good challenge for us. Gateshead were really good, no surprise. We were a bit rusty.” The players had a very difficult week so we were a little bit in that first half, but the character was good and it was important that we come back and show us the truth.”