Barton Backs 'Wise' Pardew

By Dan King

Never a man afraid to speak his mind, Joey Barton has made no secret of his respect and admiration for the recently-departed Chris Hughton. But after helping Newcastle to a 3-1 win over Liverpool, the midfielder revealed that he had been impressed with Alan Pardew's first actions as Magpies manager.

Pardew only met his players for the first time one day before the game, having been unveiled as manager on Thursday, and Barton said the new man had "wisely" opted to adopt an attitude that if it isn't particularly broken, there's no need to fix it.

But the Huyton-born player explained to nufcTV that the new boss had made a number of small adjustments to the way the side prepared for the game - and it paid off with the televised victory.

"I think he wisely let things just be and put his own little touches on it," said Barton, who scored the second goal as he squeezed the ball past Pepe Reine from Andy Carroll's flick-on.

"He was conscious not to make too many significant changes to what we do, which I think was the best way.

"He hasn't rocked the boat too early. Obviously, he's a manager with his own way of doing things and he will try and filter that through to the players in the coming weeks and months, but at the moment he tweaked a couple of things he'd seen and thought from afar."

Barton added: "We've got to keep looking upwards and stick together as a dressing room and as a football club.

"We've got a decent team when everyone's fit, and we could surprise a few."