WHEN asked by a reporter recently if he might be starting to attract interest from elsewhere, Alan Pardew asked if he was joking.

On the day it was suggested he had crept on to the shortlist to replace Fabio Capello as England manager, Pardew underlined why his talents are starting to be taken seriously.

As the warm-up act for two of the most attractive teams in the country, Newcastle United's televised 1-0 win over Queens Park Rangers was not pretty, but it was pretty effective. In the game between the black-and-whites and chequered-shirted opponents, Pardew won his personal game of chess with Mark Hughes.

Leon Best's goal separated the sides but the Magpies' man of the match stood in a coat on the touchline all afternoon.

The hosts started extremely sloppily, passes going astray and basic control occasionally beyond them. Danny Guthrie looked like a man making his first appearance since December 3.

Most of the mistakes came in the area of the pitch frost-bound during the warm-up, but it quickly thawed and offered no excuse. Guthrie and his team-mates would also warm to the task.

An injury to Newcastle's main creative force prompted the turnaround. Shaun Derry's 20th-minute tackle on Yohan Cabaye was not unlike a number hotly debated last week.

His trailing leg was pretty incidental but his left lunged forcefully and late. Cabaye angrily shoved the grey-haired midfielder, but as soon as the adrenaline wore off he sat on the turf, his game over. Derry was booked.In the lengthy period before Cabaye disappeared down the tunnel, Pardew hatched his plan, relaying it to Guthrie and Jonas Gutierrez.

Hatem Ben Arfa came on in the right-wing position he excelled in against Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup. Central midfield was rearranged into an unusual triangle. Gutierrez came off the flank to be at its apex, Ryan Taylor in from the right to hold alongside Guthrie. Best tried to job-share between centre-forward and the otherwise vacant left wing. He was his own worst enemy, his assured 37th-minute goal ensuring the dirty work more or less became his full-time role before making way for others better suited to it.