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We’ll take Spurs hammering ‘on the chin’ and move on, says Pardew

FRUSTRATED ... United manager Alan Pardew reacts on the touchline during the Premier League match at White Hart Lane.

FRUSTRATED ... United manager Alan Pardew reacts on the touchline during the Premier League match at White Hart Lane.

By MILES STARFORTH
Published on Monday 13 February 2012 11:13

ALAN Pardew says Newcastle United will take their defeat at White Hart Lane “on the chin”.

Tottenham Hotspur inflicted a 5-0 defeat on Pardew’s side on Saturday as the Magpies had no answer to the home side’s pace and movement in a first half which saw them concede four goals.

United improved after the break, but couldn’t stop Spurs adding another goal as they sent out a message to their own boss Harry Redknapp amid the clamour for him to become the new England chief.

Match report: Tottenham Hotspur 5 Newcastle United 0

The only consolsation was that Pardew’s sixth-placed team – who now have a two-week break – only dropped one position in the Premier League, and remain just a point from Arsenal in fourth.

Pardew’s now focused on taking three points from Wolverhampton Wanderers at St James’s Park on February 25, when he will have Yohan Cabaye, Cheik Tiote and Ryan Taylor available.

“We have to take it on the chin,” Pardew, pictured, told the Gazette.

“We can’t dwell on it.

“We’re not going to come up against a team like that for a while, maybe Man City near the end as they’ll be going for the title with two games to go.

“That might be something we need to look at for then, but I don’t think we will play a team as good as Tottenham, and in the same emotional state that they were in.

“They wanted to prove to the manager they wanted him to say.”

Asked if the fortnight’s break was unwelcome, Pardew added: “It’s OK, it’s probably a good thing. We can forget about this.”

Former United striker Louis Saha netted twice in the first half after Benoit Assou-Ekotto opened the scoring, and Niko Kranjcar added another before a welcome interval break.

An improved Newcastle, with Shane Ferguson on for the anonymous Gabriel Obertan, competed better in the second-half, though the outstanding Emmanuel Adebayor added a fifth goal.

At the other end, Brad Friedel was largely untroubled.

“The second half was about not losing our heads, and being disciplined,” said Pardew.

“We did that. That’s all we could do – the game was gone.

“It was evident at 4-4-2 we could not cope with them. They were just too good.

“Sometimes that happens, and unfortunately for us we’ve got a scoreline that we wouldn’t want. On the positive side for us, we were 4-0 down at half-time, and could have lost our heads and been silly.

“We could have lost somebody to a sending off, but we didn’t. I can only think of Spurs having two attacks in the second half.

“We did better. We’ll take that to the next game. We’ll take the embarrassment of the headlines on the chin, and go to the next game.”

Pardew fielded two strikers – Demba Ba and new signing Papiss Demba Cisse – but they were starved of service.

And the Newcastle boss – who has often fielded a lone forward this season – must find a way to play two up front.

“We have two good strikers, but they didn’t have a chance,” added Pardew.

“Papiss isn’t going to win you the game when you’re 2-0 down after five minutes. We need to be able to cope with having two strikers.

“The Press and fans have criticised us when we have played 4-5-1 at times this year. Now they understand why.”

Twitter: @milesstarforth


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