West Ham lose again
on tour but Newcastle win
West Ham suffered a second defeat on their tour of New Zealand as they were beaten 3-1 by Sydney FC.
The Australian side were a goal up in four minutes after Ali Abbas ran clear of Mark Noble and passed to Corey Gameiro, who fired under Adrian.
A low shot from Alex Brosque doubled the lead on 26 minutes, and the 2-0 scoreline stood at the break as Aaron Cresswell missed the target following a one-two with Carlton Cole.
West Ham began the second half more promisingly and halved the arrears when a Matt Jarvis cross deflected in off defender Nikola Petkovic.
But the A-League side scored a third on 64 minutes through Gameiro, and the goal stood despite West Ham players appealing for handball by Terry Antonis in the build-up.
West Ham manager Sam Allardyce admitted his side had been poor, just three weeks before the start of the Premier League.
"We've played two games and we've played poorly in them," said Allardyce.
"The football was not good enough to get results but we're experimenting and working on more open attacking play and it hasn't worked well from a defensive point of view."
West Ham are so far without a win in pre-season after a last-minute 2-2 draw at Stevenage, a 0-0 draw at Ipswich Town and losses against Wellington Phoenix and Sydney FC.
Their 2014/15 season kicks off on August 16 against Tottenham.
Newcastle ended their pre-season tour of New Zealand with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Wellington Phoenix.
Yoan Gouffran's first-half goal proved to be enough to give Newcastle their second win on the tour after overcoming Sydney FC earlier in the week.
Wellington, who beat West Ham on Wednesday, matched Newcastle for long periods of the game with chances few and far between for both sides.
Newcastle grabbed the only goal of the game four minutes before the break when Gouffran got on the end of Vurnon Anita's cross to head home.
Rob Elliott ensured Newcastle held on for the victory in the second half as he made two fine stops to keep out efforts from Wellington's Jeremy Brockie.
The only negative for Alan Pardew were the injuries to Fabricio Coloccini and Siem De Jong as both players were forced to limp off at the Westpac Stadium with knocks.
Gouffran told Sky Sports News: "We are very happy to win the game and we are very happy to get this (Football United) trophy. This is good for the confidence.
"It's good for the fans from New Zealand, it's good for us to win new fans in the world; we are happy to come here. We have to be ready for the start of the season and we will work very hard on the training ground and we will be ready."