Thousands of Newcastle United fans queue for Atalanta and Athletic Bilbao tickets

The club is hosting Atalanta on July 29 (7.45pm kick-off) and Athletic Bilbao on July 30 (3pm). Head coach Eddie Howe, preparing his players for Saturday’s behind-closed-doors game against Gateshead, will split his first-team squad between the two games.

Tickets for both fixtures are priced £20 for adults and £10 for concessions. Ticket sales are limited to six per person.

The club is also offering a two-game package, available until July 19 and priced £35 for adults and £15 for concessions.

There was an online queue of more than 10,000 fans once tickets went on sale, while a long queue also formed for the ticket office at St James’s Park.

Speaking about the club's pre-season programme last week, Howe said: “The games are really important. This training now is about trying to develop the team, and how we want to play the game.

“The schedule’s based, in part, around our training ground, which is having a lot of work around it currently. The two trips away (to Austria and Portugal), we probably normally would only have one. We’ve gone for two just to stay away from the disruption of the changes.

“We tried to get really competitive games. We want to be tested. I think the games scheduled will be tough. I think that’ll make us ready for the league.”

The sale comes amid what the club described as “unprecedented” demand for season-ticket renewals following last season's takeover. Tens of thousands of fans also queued online last week when United put 1,000 new season-tickets on sale.