Pardew slams disheartened Newcastle side

Alan Pardew slammed Newcastle's demoralised display in the 4-0 loss to Tottenham and questioned the confidence and heart of his players.

It has been a nightmare start to 2014 for the Toon Army, who have won just once since the turn of the year and have lost star man Yohan Cabaye to Paris Saint-Germain.

And the Newcastle boss indicated he had some choice words for his underperforming squad following the heavy home defeat to Spurs.

"I thought Spurs dominated proceedings from start to the finish. I've assessed it in the dressing room and it'll stay in the dressing room," he said.

"Was I happy? Of course I wasn't. Did I think proceedings went to plan? Did I think players played with confidence? Did I think players played with heart? I have to question that and I'll make sure when we play Aston Villa that they do.

"I made my position very clear with the group that we have 12 games two go and that I'll expect a lot better than what we saw tonight.

"There's no hiding behind anything tonight. We were far, far away from being good enough for this football club. I do need to see a little bit more than I saw tonight and that's really about as much as I'm going to criticise anyone publicly tonight."