Pardew to take Newcastle ‘back to basics’ after derby defeat

Newcastle United boss Alan Pardew says he will have to "go back to basics", as his side slipped to their fourth defeat in six matches, losing to rivals Sunderland 3-0.

It was a tense Tyne-Wear derby but three major mistakes from Newcastle - including conceding a penalty early on - handed the impetus to the Black Cats, who won for the second season running at St. James’ Park.

And Pardew conceded that he will need to take a new approach with his patchy side going forward.

“I look at the team today and it looks like I’m going to have to draw it back to basics and find a game plan that’s going to work for us,” he said.

The defeat draws to a close a difficult week for the club, after Yohan Cabaye left the north-east for Paris Saint-Germain and Loic Remy failed in an appeal against a three-match suspension, factors Pardew believes had a knock-on effect to his side’s fortunes on the pitch.

“I think we lost a bit of leadership, I think we lost a bit of control. You’ve got to have a real clear mind, and you’ve got to be up for the game - which I think we were - but it can be knocked out of you.

“We’ve had blows all week. We lost [Yohan] Cabaye and we lost [Loic] Remy. Sammy [Ameobi] came in today, but he was touch-and-go as he didn’t feel well. I didn’t have a lot of options.”