Pardew Takes Responsibility for Defeat

Alan Pardew today admitted that he was at fault for yesterday's heavy defeat, "I made some changes thinking that they would make us stronger defensively, but it didn't work out like that. I thought that, with Anton protecting the back four, Shaun Newton on the right and Elliott Ward - who has done very well on loan at Plymouth - in defence, it would make us stronger, but unfortunately that wasn't the case.

Perhaps there were too many changes. I wouldn't put the blame at anyone's door individually - it was a little bit of this and a little bit of that in the team today and I have to take responsibility for that."

Hopefully by admitting that the defeat was largely down to his own tatical errors he can restore some confidence in the players after they suffered a 4-1 defeat, which if we are honest could have been far heavier.