Pardew lauds team effort

Newcastle boss Alan Pardew praised the collective effort of his team after they beat Aston Villa 2-1 on Sunday.

Goals to Demba Ba and debutant Papiss Demba Cisse sealed the win that kept Newcastle fifth, with the latter hitting a spectacular left-foot winner with just 18 minutes to play.

Pardew preferred to focus on his side’s overall performance before lauding Cisse’s efforts.

“We mustn’t get carried from the team ethic we have got here,” Pardew told Sky Sports.

“The guys did brilliantly to get a result at Blackburn in the week and again we have put in a display here that has been strong,”

“(James) Perch in midfield was brilliant. We had no Cheick (Tiote) today, no (Yohan) Cabaye, but we keep winning. That’s a great thing.”

“Having said that, you still need great players because they change games. Papiss did that today and Demba has done it for us before. It was a real bonus that he got a goal on his debut.”

Pardew felt his side were below-par in the first half but was pleased with his side’s response after the break.

“Although they scored just before half-time, they deserved to be level,” he said. “They deserved to be in the lead at half-time.”

“We accepted that and second half we knew we had to be better and more controlled, and we were. We limited their breakaways on us and we got a bit of pressure building.”

Aston Villa boss Alex McLeish was unhappy with his side’s failure to win, let alone pick up a point.

“I’m disappointed we never won,” McLeish said.

“We made about five chances and they all fell to our top man and our top marksman – Benty (Darren Bent).”

“I think we had one or two others near the end. (Tim) Krul was in great form and he has made some point-blank saves. On another day Benty would have had a hat-trick.”