Alan Pardew looking at top half finish
Newcastle manager Alan Pardew has set his sights on a top-half finish, following his side’s 2-1 Premier League victory over Stoke.
The Magpies were trailing, courtesy of a Jonathan Walters penalty, heading into the final 20 minutes, but goals from Yohan Cabaye and Papiss Cisse completed a stunning comeback.
With the result, Newcastle are now 13th, level on points with Fulham, who occupy the lowest spot in the top half.
Pardew feels that his team can recover from n underwhelming start to the season to finish in the top ten:
“It was a very important win for us, because it jumps us right up the Premier League and gives us a chance to attack the top ten,” he told Sky Sports.
The ex-Southampton boss praised his team for their defensive resilience, but did confess that they were a little lucky:
“But we were fortunate in some ways, Stoke came here and were excellent today and that was as good a defensive display as you will see.
“They stopped us playing and made it very difficult and we kept plugging away, asking different questions and in the end it was a pass through the eye of the needle from [Sylvain] Marveaux that got us the goal.”
Newcastle entered the fixture on the back of a gruelling trip to Russia to face Anzhi Makhachkala on Thursday.
Pardew believes that the travelling left his team a little fatigued, which was responsible for a, sometimes, lethargic display:
“Sometimes it is not physical, but a mental tiredness and I thought we were slow. But I thought we brightened up.”
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