Alan Pardew needs a win to quell questions from Newcastle fans. Chief sports writer Mark Douglas reports on a critical period for the Magpies.
AT some 550 feet above sea level, The Hawthorns is comfortably the highest ground in the Football League. An appropriate venue, then, for the high stakes game Alan Pardew is currently playing.
Pardew has never needed a performance or a victory more than he does against West Bromwich Albion today. He needs the points to keep relegation at arm's length, of course, but also to begin the process of vindicating his methods, judgement and tactical acumen after Sunday's bitter disappointment.
He gave the team several days off this week, which might normally pass without comment. But when Danny Simpson let the cat out of the bag by revealing he was at Alton Towers on Wednesday, it kick-started a new route of questioning among fans smarting at Sunday's lacklustre showing.
Just 11 months ago he won the LMA's prestigious manager of the year award. He featured heavily in the betting for the Liverpool and Tottenham jobs and Newcastle fans didn't want him to go. Such are the extremes of emotion associated with football management.
Perhaps it was the derby. The emotion and bitterness poured into the Tyne-Wear tussle have dragged down many a reputation and it does skew the debate somewhat.
But just putting it down to that would be misleading. More likely the defeat crystallised nagging concerns about a season that has seen too many days when you wonder just what happened to the lean, mean black and white machine that churned all in front of them last spring.
The last time Newcastle were on the road in England they were smacked for four by Manchester City, for example. The performance that day was far worse than the one against Sunderland. Pardew's mitigation is injuries and the 'F' word: fatigue. It doesn't play well to the galleries but the Newcastle boss is certain that the demands of Europe have cast a long shadow over their efforts this year.
"As a manager, knowing the statistics we have from Thursday to Sunday, we knew we were in danger of that result," he said. "We put ourselves in danger by being in the quarter-finals. You can't have one without the other. I could have had huge criticism if I'd put a weakened team out against Benfica and I decided not to do that."
Injuries, he argues, are a natural result of that draining Europa League campaign. "I think last season we had the same back four, back five for about ten games," he said. "This year we've hardly had a settled back four, let alone team. That's been the problem.
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