Pards on the Derby game.

ALAN PARDEW is aiming to give the Toon Army the perfect reward for sticking by his players during the 3-0 loss to Manchester United – by beating Sunderland again at the Stadium of Light in 13 days time.

Newcastle United made a shocking start against their old Premier League adversaries Man United.

But the reaction of the Geordie fans was to lift their players rather than get on their backs, something that didn’t go unnoticed by Pardew.

However, he hopes that the United faithful will be partying on Wearside in their next game and knows a repeat of the defending on offer against Sir Alex Ferguson’s team will be unacceptable in the Tyne-Wear derby tussle.

Looking ahead, Pardew told the Chronicle: “I hope we can give them something to cheer about at Sunderland now.

“It is a huge game for the city and we know how much it means.

“We reminded the players of our next game beforehand.

“We wanted to win against Man United and go into the derby in really good fettle.

“But we haven’t, so we now have to go in there, roll our sleeves up and have a real go.” Geordie punters still applauded their troops off the field after their third game in eight days, with the clash with Man United clearly a bridge too far following on from the superb 3-0 win over Bordeaux in the Europa League.

But Pardew still feels that there were enough positives to build on during the international break.

The Toon gaffer said: “Our fans go home disappointed.

“You look at the stats, they are almost the same.

“We had more possession and the same amount of efforts at goal. Yet we lost 3-0.

“It just shows you that the concentration at set-plays is crucial.

“A lot of our game was really good. But the start cost us.”

Pardew will wave off Demba Ba, Papiss Cisse and Cheick Tiote as they head to Dakar for preparation for the African Cup of Nations play-off qualifier ahead of January’s finals.

And he will also be without Yohan Cabaye, Haris Vuckic and Shane Ferguson.

But he hopes that Steven Taylor and Fabricio Coloccini will be back fit for the derby.

He said of the defensive duo: “We hope they are back and available for Sunderland. But we’ll have to wait and see for Tim Krul.

“It would be nice to have the option.”

From the Ronnie.

 

As I've said previously for me it's by far and away the biggest derby in the top flight now.

As disappointing as Sunday may have been for you guys let's be honest you'd much rather beat Sunderland. You seem to be suffering from playing Thursdays and Sundays.

Hope for a good game. This is one of the non-Chelsea fixtures I always look out for.

 

Certainly the most vociferous.

 

Got to admit if we had to win one 3-0 and lose one 3-0, i'll take the loss to man u and a win in the derby.

mind you, losing to man u doesn't really guarrantee success in the dark place

 

Going to the dark place with a win behind us would have been better for morale, but I think the lads know how much this game means to us and will be up for it. A chance to make amends for Sunday.

 

my optimism is low for this game. I wish I had the faith I had last season. Bordeaux has been the only game we have looked comfortable. On the plus side Cattermolester is suspended so we can be hopeful that no one will get badly injured

 

Of course it also means that they'll probably end up with 11 players on the field.

 

with good things must come bad. Tbh it leaves more chance of Tiote getting sent off, Refs love to send someone off in these games. No Raylor for a bail out too if things arent going to plan along the ground.

 

We can beat Sunderland but we must get our best side out soon.

 

Well, this might be the first game of the season where we'll be able to play our strongest 11, whatever that is. If so, and if they can get up to 75% of full speed, we should be fine. I'll beleive it, though, when I see it

 

I'd like to see at least one of those three on the pitch. Colo preferably as he is our leader and organiser. Regardless which team we can put out, I fancy us to do alright. They have been worse than us so far and are lucky to have the points they do. If we contain Fletcher, its difficult to see them scoring bar set plays. We should be bossing this game as they have a poor central midfield area. Gardner, Larsson, Vaughan, Meyler, Colback - its hardly a who's who of PL central midfielders! Their best and most effective, Cattermole, is out. Furthermore McClean and Sessegnon have been woeful so far.

All that said it is a derby, they are excellent at home and we're hardly setting the world alight ourselves!

 

If we have either Colo or Saylor back then I'm confident of a win.

But even without either of them, Sunderland don't pose near the same attacking threat as Man Utd, and they've played together and played well in the past.

We just need to get over Man Utd.

Mclean and A.Johnson are both injured. Sess has been woeful, but he's the sort of player that could run rings around the likes of Williamson, and I wouldn't put it past him to return to form against us.

 

his acknowledgement of the set pice issues is, again some comfort.... he just needs to act on it now.

 

But don't forget we still have Shola the Mackem Slayer

 

Two Ameobis,
We've now got two Ameobis
Two Ame-obees
We've got two Ameobis

 

Desperately need the core of our back 5 to return from injury for this one with Krul, Saylor and Colo i think we will be fine but we need atleast Krul and a CB back from injury.

 

The Holy Trinity as I like to call them.