Pardew apologises for Cup shocker

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew apologised for his side’s embarrassing 3-1 FA Cup exit at the hands of League Two side Stevenage.

The Premier League outfit looked a far cry from the side that handed West Ham a 5-0 hammering last time out, with Stevenage creating one of the greatest fairytales in the Cup’s history with a memorable third-round win on home turf.

Newcastle, who went in without first-choice strikers Andy Carroll and Shola Ameobi following a hectic Christmas period, were humbled as Mike Williamson’s own goal and strikes from Michael Bostwick and Peter Winn were enough for the hosts.

A long-range Joey Barton effort in second half injury time gave Newcastle hope at 2-1, but Pardew admitted his side were outworked and outplayed, and apologised to the fans despite a tough sequence of games.

“I can only say we are sorry for the result and for the performance because it was the performance level which was the problem tonight,” Pardew said.

“The physical side of Stevenage’s game was a problem for us all night.”

“We were running on empty. It’s been such a tough sequence of games. The team was a shadow of the team which played at Wigan and West Ham. Our energy level just couldn’t match theirs. In both boxes we got dominated. The team looked tired.”

“We had some key players missing through injury but I played the strongest team I could.”

Newcastle went into the tie sitting eighth in the top flight, some 75 places above their League Two rivals, but were left to lick their wounds and forced to finish the match with 10 men after substitute Cheick Tiote’s send off for a two-footed challenge.

Stevenage manager Graham Westley couldn’t hide his delight after pulling off one of the greatest FA Cup shocks in the competition’s long history.

“This is a fantastic day for the football club,” Westley said.

“We’re in the draw for the fourth round and hopefully we get a great draw and look forward to the next (match).”

“The focus before the game was how we would win 5-0. We established that if we did just 20 percent of what it would take to win 5-0 we would still win the game.”

“We played to our strengths and their weaknesses. The top players are not infallible, they all have their weaknesses and winning is about exposing their weaknesses and playing to your strengths and we did that.”