Boss Hoping To Break Hampshire Hoodoo

By Tom Easterby

Alan Pardew will return to his old club on Saturday hoping for a reverse in Newcastle United's recent fortunes on the south coast.

The Magpies travel to Southampton having been beaten 2-0 and 4-0 on their last two visits to St. Mary's Stadium.

Pardew knows his side must overcome their Hampshire hoodoo in order to record their first win of the new Barclays Premier League season.

"We've done well at home but away from home, both times, we've been well beaten if I'm honest," conceded the Newcastle manager.

"Therefore I'm looking for a much better showing. It's a fantastic club - the fans there are brilliant - and I'm looking forward to seeing a few old friends but, more importantly, I'm hoping my team plays with greater urgency than it did the last two times.

"At St. Mary's we haven't done so well and I think there is a certain responsibility to make sure your focus is that much greater when you've not performed well.

"We hadn't performed very well at Manchester United for more than 40 years and we managed to win there last year, so that's what we'll try and take to Southampton - that mentality."

United will face a new-look Saints side bossed by Dutch hero Ronald Koeman - Mauricio Pochettino's summer replacement.

And Pardew knows their early season results - a loss, a draw and a win - give little indication of what his side will be faced with come Saturday afternoon.

"They've been up and down," he said, of Southampton.

"They were terrific at West Ham, perhaps not so good the week before, so they're blowing hot and cold, as teams do at this time of the year.

"It's very rare that you can bang three, four, five performances straight out of the blocks, and there are a couple of teams in that position at the moment - Swansea and Chelsea - and they'll be looking to continue that, but it's very difficult.

"They (Southampton) look slightly different, the new manager's trying to put his own sort of tilt on their tactics and the way they play.

"Their forward line has changed dramatically, but they have good players, and players we know well."

A Wilfried Zaha goal five minutes into added-time denied Newcastle a win over Crystal Palace before the international break a fortnight ago.

While Pardew says three points would have been ideal against the Eagles, he knows to ensure wins, goals must be scored in abundance - from all departments within his team.

"I think we've got a lot of new players, we've got a good feeling with them and they're going to need a bit of time, and I'm hoping that we kick in pretty quickly but if we don't, we'll have to be patient," he said.

"It's always important to go into an international break with a win because it gives a good feeling to the players who leave the camp, so that was disappointing.

"I just feel that we're a strong team, we have an outstanding midfield line that needs to contribute goals.

"Everybody keeps talking about our lack of strikers but we need to get more goals from midfield and our defenders. The big bonus of last week was Williamson scoring, as a six-feet four-inch centre half with his first goal in five years or whatever it was, so there's always small mercies."