TOON FLYING HIGH
Pardew’s signal to Ashley says it all
IS it really only a month since Alan Pardew headed into the last international break looking every inch a dead man walking, castigated by Newcastle fans campaigning for owner Mike Ashley to axe their manager?
Yesterday at The Hawthorns, two minutes from the end of his fourth consecutive Premier League win — and fifth in all competitions — Pardew gazed up into the directors’ box looking for Ashley and gave him an emphatic thumbs up (right).
‘You can imagine everyone was pulling at him when we weren’t winning and he stuck with me and was very supportive,’ said Pardew. ‘ You have to have that as a manager.
‘You’ve got to have faith that you’re doing the right things. I’d like to think that buys you a bit of time. It bought me just enough time on this occasion.’
The last time Pardew won five games in a row, Newcastle finished fifth in the Premier League and he won the Manager of the Year award in 2012.
While that might be too much to ask this season, they are up to eighth place following a quite spectacular transformation.
It has been built on the back of stubborn defence — Pardew’s side have not conceded in the last 342 minutes — and the emergence of a new Geordie hero in Ayoze Perez.
The Spaniard had already repaid the modest £1.5million transfer fee Newcastle spent to take him from Tenerife to Tyneside in the summer by scoring the winning goals on his previous two appearances against Tottenham and Liverpool.
Yesterday he conjured up a quite sublime finish to set his team on the road to another victory over West Bromwich Albion.
A disappointing first half was petering to a close when Newcastle moved the ball out to the right and Daryl Janmaat picked out Perez’s darting run with a low ball into the box.
The youngster still had plenty of work to do and he produced a fantastic piece of skill, flicking the ball with the inside of his trailing right foot across Ben Foster and into the far corner.
‘That goal was worthy of winning any game,’ said Pardew. ‘The cross was good but he had to add a little bit of pace with the flick and that’s outstanding. We worked hard to bring him to the club.
‘He was courted by some big clubs, in particular Porto, but he genuinely loved the way we were so determined to bring him and 54,000 Geordies every week is a big magnet.’
Fabricio Coloccini claimed the second goal just after the hour. West Brom failed to clear a corner and the ball was once again played to Janmaat on the right.
The full back took Youssouf Mulumbu one way and then twisted back inside before curling a fantastic cross to the edge of the six-yard box where Coloccini was waiting to power a downward header inside the post.
After winning only once in 15 Premier League games before the last international break, Pardew can go into this one satisfied that he is beginning to win over at least some of his harshest critics.
‘Newcastle supporters are an extreme of any fan,’ he said. ‘When they win they go mad and when they lose they go mad, too. We weren’t winning games and that is my job, to win games.
‘I am not going to get carried away.
‘These young players have a lot to learn but so far so good.’
For West Brom boss Alan Irvine, however, this was a depressing step backwards after taking five points from his last three games.
There was a significant lack of threat from his team, despite enjoying plenty of possession and their best chance fell to Andre Wisdom 11 minutes from time when the fullback miscued horribly wide. Irvine wondered whether Saido Berahino’s first England call-up last week might have somehow contributed to a strangely subdued performance from his top scorer. Berahino, who was being watched by FA representative Mike Rigg, had an early shot turned over by Tim Krul but rarely tested the Newcastle keeper after that.
‘He probably had his poorest game,’ said Irvine. ‘People will ask the question, including myself, if it’s a result of what has happened during the week but you can have a poor game at any time.
‘I would like to think England has given him a massive boost and today just didn’t happen for whatever reason.
‘The only pressure on Saido is to perform at his best level as often as he possibly can, but we certainly need goals to come from all over the team.
‘ We just did not play well enough.’