Pardew Spurred On By Last Season's Loss

By Dan King - Newcastle United Club Reporter

Almost a year to the day, Alan Pardew saw his side suffer their heaviest defeat of his reign at White Hart Lane but he has vowed that this season's trip to Tottenham is a "different scenario."

With then-Spurs boss Harry Redknapp being linked strongly with the England manager's job, the home fans were right behind their manager and their team and cheered them on to a 5-0 win in North London.

That result kept the in-form Lilywhites in third place and although Redknapp has since departed, they are currently fourth under his replacement Andre Villas-Boas.

But with Newcastle going into the game after two successive wins, including last weekend's dramatic victory over European champions Chelsea, Pardew believes his men are well prepared this time around.

"We had three or four tricky days last year - we've had many more than that this year - and that was one of them," explained the Magpies manager, whose side went on to finish fifth despite that loss at the Lane.

"Spurs played very, very well that day; there was a lot of business with Harry perhaps going to England and everything else, and we caught them on that day when it was all coming together for them.

"This'll be a different scenario. We have got ourselves on the up a little bit and hopefully we can turn the result around."

Former Porto and Chelsea boss Villas-Boas' first game in charge of Tottenham was their opening day defeat at St. James' Park in August but since then he has presided over some excellent results. 

Spurs could go third for a few hours at least should they get all three points this weekend and Pardew said: "He's done a good job there. He's gone quietly about his business, as he does.

"He's a very thorough coach and I've got a lot of admiration for him. And I think they've got some fantastic players. Gareth Bale is definitely in that top five or six players in the world right now so we've got some difficult players to contain."