Pardew: Attacking mentality cost Newcastle

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew said his side would have won had his players not been urged to over-attack in the final stages against Tottenham.

Spurs equalized in injury time at St. James Park via Aaron Lennon, with the goal cancelling out defender Fabricio Coloccini’s opener for the home side.

Pardew said if it was not for the eager support of the home faithful – and a natural tendency to entertain by pushing for a second goal – his side may have clinched the three points.

“We’ve come up against a Spurs side that in the first half looked like they were going to give us a really tough afternoon. They knocked the belief out of us with their movement and passing,” Pardew told Sky Sports.

“And it wasn’t til half-time when we sat them down and adjusted a couple of things and put a bit more belief in the players that we looked like what we can do, caused them all sorts of problems.”

“We took the lead and if it wasn’t for exuberance at the end, trying to get a second and the crowd urging us on and all getting a little bit carried away, we would have a really big victory today. Unfortunately for us, it’s only a draw.”

Coloccini, who scored a rare goal on his 29th birthday and in his 100th match for United, earned man-of-the-match honours from his manager.

“I thought he was the stand-out player today. He was brilliant in everything he did,” Pardew said.

Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp said the substitution of Gareth Bale due to a back injury was a concern, and admitted the star winger had been carrying a complaint for some time.

“It’s been dragging on and we need to get a cure for it. I think we need to get him looked at now and make sure that we get somebody who can sort it out for him. It’s probably not something too serious I don’t think but he’s important to us,” Redknapp said.

Redknapp added that he believed a draw was a fair result.

“I felt it would have been hard on us getting beat. I felt first half we played some great stuff, passed the ball well, had some good opportunities. Jermain (Defoe) had a great chance right on half-time to put us one up,” he said.