Pardew laments Newcastle profligacy

Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew rued his side’s missed chances after defeat to table-toppers Manchester City ended their unbeaten run.

Two late first-half goals from Mario Balotelli and Micah Richards, followed by a Sergio Aguero penalty in the second secured the win, before Dan Gosling’s late finish was to provide little more than consolation for the visitors at Etihad Stadium.

Newcastle nearly took the lead through Demba Ba but a good save from Joe Hart denied them and Pardew rued his side’s failure to capitalise on rare openings on the City goal.

The 50-year-old told reporters: “I thought we had situations in the game where it could’ve been a different afternoon.”

“We had two big chances at 0-0 and when you are playing a side as powerful as Man City … you need breaks to go your way and I don’t think we had any break in the game and it fell against us at key moments and that was probably decisive.”

“Once they got the two goals there was a confident air about them and they made it difficult but again we rallied and had a big, big chance at 2-0 and if that had gone in then maybe the mood in the stadium would have changed but it didn’t really go for us today.”

Pardew’s Manchester City counterpart Roberto Mancini said Newcastle had given his side a stern challenge and conceded that a bit of luck helped City seal the three points.

“Today was a really difficult match because Newcastle are a strong team, they played very well and we knew it would be hard,” Mancini said. “After an international break it is always difficult.”

“Before the game I told the guys that today would be difficult because Newcastle are a strong team with good players and they are playing very well at the moment and I said if they want to win this game they would have to play well.”

“We played very well, had a lot of possession and scored three goals as well as creating a lot of chances.”

“But I think at times we were also a little bit lucky.”