Alan Pardew’s Crystal Palace routed his former club Newcastle 5-1 in the Premier League despite going an early goal down Saturday to increase the pressure on manager Steve McClaren after another abject display by the visitors.
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The Magpies got off to a flyer at Selhurst Park when Papiss Cisse broke the deadlock on 10 minutes, but they were soon trailing through quick-fire goals from James McArthur and Yannick Bolasie.
McClaren unleashed some home truths following Newcastle’s 3-0 loss to Leicester at St James’ Park, only for his side to capitulate spectacularly at Selhurst Park.
But Newcastle’s lead was to last just four minutes as Wickham did brilliantly to hold off Fabricio Coloccini and tee up McArthur for a shot that found the net via a sizeable deflection off Paul Dummett.
“I said to the players “back to work tomorrow morning'”, McClaren said”.
“There’s no extra satisfaction (in beating Newcastle)”.
“And we need to get to work and start winning games”. Maybe he has a point that adversity develops character, chiselling out hardened features that learn not to blink when confronted by the smallest hint of trouble. He called out the captain and his big players and then we heard that there was going to be a reaction because the players had trained very well.
On the other side of the coin, on the return journey, the carriage was rammed uncomfortably full of very depressed Geordies and who could blame them?
While Connor Wickham led the line at the weekend and Bolasie believes he’s doing a great job in the role, he also stated that if Alan Pardew needs him in the role then he’s able to shoulder that responsibility too.
“It’s hard to talk about the opposition because I love the staff and the players there, and some of the Newcastle fans who I know who travelled to the game”. We got the goal and you could see they were rattled,”Colback told the club’s website”.
DeAndre Yedlin has a lot to prove if he wants to get into the Tottenham first 11, but the right-back, on loan at Sunderland, put in a good shift against Stoke on Saturday. “They all enjoyed it there, they were successful and enjoyed working with the players”. We know we’re doing the right things – I know that through experience.
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This time past year, the Toon were in the top half with Pardew in the dugout after a run of six wins in a row; whilst few fans would happily accept him back, the team could do with a similar run if they are to reach the relative comfort of mid-table mediocrity.
