ALAN Pardew felt that Newcastle United’s performance provided hope that they will escape from a fight at the bottom of the Premier League despite a devastating fourth straight defeat.
United were applauded by the visiting supporters for their efforts but it was in vain after Papiss Cisse’s early second-half goal was cancelled out by Stoke’s Jonathan Walters and substitute Cameron Jerome, who rammed home a late winner.
It was better from United, but they still may slide into the bottom three before a “must-win” game against Wigan on Monday. “It’s pretty galling to look the players in the eye and see them coming away with nothing. It’s a tough result to take,” he said. “I also thought we should have had a penalty when Shawcross stopped the ball going back to Cisse.
“There was a couple of errors for the goals but it was such an improved performance – not just from the Southampton game but from Swansea too.
“I thought we were the better side, to be honest. It’s tough for us but that’s where we are. That’s the sort of season we’re having. We’re not really getting any breaks.
“We’re very much aware that it’s four defeats in a row and we can’t really complain about some of them.
“There are a lot of causes for concern – our injury list, the Europa League but there’s no need to harp on about them.”
On Monday’s fixture, Pardew added: “We’ve got a home game against Wigan and we need to win it.”
