Pardew Aiming To Storm The Palace

By Dan King - Newcastle United Digital Editor

Ahead of Crystal Palace's appearance in the 1990 FA Cup final, Alan Pardew joined the Eagles squad in recording a rousing rendition of The Dave Clark Five's 'Glad All Over'.

But when he takes his Newcastle side to Selhurst Park on Saturday, he'll be hoping that the South London outfit's supporters - and his friend Tony Pulis - are sad all over, for the Magpies are looking to maintain their position in the top six of the Barclays Premier League.

The United boss joined Palace from non-league Yeovil in 1987 and helped them to win promotion to the old First Division in 1989 before scoring a semi-final winner against Liverpool which sent Palace to Wembley and had their players heading for the recording studio.

However, the only record he's concerned with this weekend is Newcastle's - even if he does retain an affinity for the club which gave him his start in the professional game.

"It means a little bit more to me, obviously, because of that connection," he admitted. "(I had) fantastic times there, it's a great club and I'm so pleased they've picked up under my old pal Tony Pulis - a good choice by them.

"He's certainly got the ball rolling so that makes it tougher. Tony plays a brand of football that's tough to play against; physical, demanding and at times direct and you need to be able to stand up and be counted in that manner.

"His teams have tested better teams than us on that level and won but for us, it's about how we're playing. And we're playing really well at the minute.

"We need to bring that to Selhurst Park and if we can do that then they won't get it all their own way and hopefully we can get three points."

Yohan Cabaye is available after serving a one-match suspension against Southampton last weekend.

And Pardew said: "The one beauty I have at the minute is the opposition manager's not exactly sure which way I'm going to go.

"We've gone with a couple of strikers at times and done well, we've tried to control the game and retain the ball with an extra midfield player and we've done that well, so that's causing the opposition a few problems: how are we going to set up?

"You've got to be have great players to be able to do that and I'm lucky enough to have a choice of great players.

"We welcome Cabaye back this weekend and that's a massive player for us. I think he might have made a difference against Southampton but we've got him for this one and over the Christmas programme. We're pleased about that."