Alan Pardew, “Important I didn’t kill them over the decision (Cisse penalty) because it still ended up hurting us throughout that second half, as we knew we should have been two up”.
Alan Pardew; “Not really acceptable to ask players at this level to play two games in two days. If we’d had a week’s preparation you would have seen a different Newcastle”.
Pardew reassures any doubts about the knock Cabaye took on his ankle, the manager expressing his delight that he was in a position to take off both Cabaye & Cisse early to protect them for next match at Wigan.
In Alan Pardew’s opinion, Papiss Cisse was the only flair player “…on it today”. He does have special praise though for the whole team as they stuck to today’s game plan, ‘discipline & patience’.