Pardew credits Ashley for Newcastle revival

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew insists the club’s much-maligned owner Mike Ashley deserves some of the credit for his side’s unbeaten start to the Premier League season.

The Magpies are undefeated in eight games and remain in the fourth Champions League position in the table after Sunday’s 2-2 draw against Tottenham at St James’ Park.

Ashley and the rest of Newcastle’s hierarchy came in for strong criticism during the close-season when they failed to fully reinvest the £35 million banked from the sale of Andy Carroll to Liverpool in January.

But the signings Pardew did make, including France international Yohan Cabaye and former Manchester United midfielder Gabriel Obertan, have made an impressive start.

They showed plenty of guts to come from behind twice against Spurs and Pardew believes Ashley should be applauded for preaching financial responsibility rather than splashing out millions on star names who may not have played with so much spirit.

“I hope the owners start to get a bit more respect,” Pardew said.

“We’ll never win everyone over - Mike, Derek (Llambias, the managing director) and even myself - but I think you can say we’re in a much better position than most Premier League clubs in terms of our financial position.

“We have an owner who doesn’t want to go away and wants to invest in the team but he wants to do it in the right manner.

“We have a scouting network which works really hard and they and my staff try to bring the best players we can with the finances we have.

“We think we’ve assembled a team which is better than last year but that’s all we are at the moment and let’s hope we can improve from there.

“The owner takes a lot of criticism but things take time and I think we’ve closed the gap on the top teams.”

Harry Redknapp, the Tottenham manager, agrees with Pardew, but he believes a top-four finish is beyond their opponents.

Rafael van der Vaart, with a first-half penalty, and substitute Jermain Defoe scored Tottenham’s goals at Newcastle, while Demba Ba claimed the first equaliser for the hosts, the forward’s fifth goal in three games.

Shola Ameobi salvaged a draw for the hosts with a fine strike four minutes from time and Redknapp said: “Newcastle are a good side, they work hard and can play.

“The two midfielders (Cheik Tiote and Cabaye) are good, the left-winger (Jonas Gutierrez) has got better and Ameobi did well when he came on.

“I don’t want to be disrespectful to Newcastle but if they finish in the top four then Alan Pardew should be manager of the year. But they’re going very well and Alan has done a great job.

“It’s not impossible (to finish in top four) but they’ll be going something to do that.”

Newcastle entertain Wigan on Saturday and a victory would take them onto 19 points after just less than a quarter of the season.

Pardew added: “If we beat Wigan we’ll have 19 points after nine games and that will be some achievement.

“That’s almost halfway to safety and once we clear those barriers we can start looking at other things.”

Tottenham, who sit in sixth, host Russian side Rubin Kazan in the Europa League on Thursday before travelling to Fulham in the league on Sunday.

But Redknapp will be without Ledley King for those games after his captain was forced off on Sunday with a groin problem.

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