Pardew pulls off ‘perfect game plan’ to punish Palace
REFEREE Neil Swarbrick was booed off by the home fans but this was as accomplished an away win as they come – the fifth of the season for Alan Pardew.
Pardew always credits Palace as the team that gave him his break. He made 160 appearances for the club, including the 1990 FA Cup final.
It helped yesterday, of course, that he had so much talent at his disposal. In Yohan Cabaye, Mathieu Debuchy and Moussa Sissoko, Pardew had three French musketeers who put poor Palace to the sword.
Newcastle will face tougher opposition but Palace had won their first two home games under Tony Pulis. However, they had not even scored in five previous meetings against Newcastle and rarely looked like breaking that sequence.
Debuchy and Sissoko targeted left-back Dean Moxey, who was given such a torrid time in the driving rain and swirling wind that he was replaced for the second half. By then, the visitors had already struck twice. After 25 minutes, Sissoko cut the ball back for Cabaye to peel away and strike a low shot that took a slight deflection before going in. Cameron Jerome almost brought Palace level with a shot on the turn that cannoned off the legs of Tim Krul and Vernon Anita cleared off the line from the resultant corner.
But then came the decisive moment of the game, as Debuchy’s cross skidded off the surface. When he tried to clear, Danny Gabbidon slashed the ball into his own net. Pulis made two half-time substitutions, the beleaguered Moxey and Barry Bannan giving way to Jonathan Parr and Yannick Bolasie. Jerome should have halved the deficit when he blasted over from 12 yards but Newcastle’s more gifted players continued to cope better with the conditions. Julian Speroni stuck out a hand to palm away Cabaye’s swerving free kick.
Then, with time running out and Cabaye already substituted, Hatem Ben Arfa – so eye-catching even in a cameo role – fired home a penalty after Parr was judged to have fouled Shola Ameobi.
‘We had a game plan and we couldn’t have carried it out any better,’ said Pardew