PAPISS Cisse's Newcastle United career is ripe for a renaissance after his “re-energised” performance at Stoke.

That is the verdict of Alan Pardew, who revealed that a tactical switch was partly responsible for relieving the pressure on the Senegal striker’s shoulders.

Cissé notched his second Premier League goal of the season in the Potteries and generally looked brighter and more involved than he has done in a difficult second season in the Premier League.

His strike was a typical opportunist’s effort but Newcastle benefited from his increased effort, and Pardew now hopes that his improvement is a sign of things to come from Cissé , who has seen strike partner Demba Ba wrestle most of the headlines from him this year.

He said: “He looked energised. I think putting him in a wide area took the pressure off him a little bit.

“I hoped that would be the case and obviously he got a goal. It was a proper goal.

“We all know the West Ham goal did not have any intention from Papiss but he got in the position he should have been in against Stoke, and suddenly there’s a little spring in his step and he’ll take that in to Monday. They’ll have to watch him.

“To be honest, I thought we all looked a lot sharper and a lot more energised in the team than we have done.”

Pardew’s players trained yesterday and the manager says he can feel an energy about their work that confirms their desperation to bounce back.

“It’s difficult to describe to the fans and the media how desperate we are to win. We really are. We’ve got to make sure we channel that in the right way,” the United manager said.

“The celebration on Tuesday was almost like relief because we’d taken the lead and got the first goal.

“In the Premier League the stats don’t bode well if you don’t score first, so we took a step in the right direction, now we have to follow that with a win.”