We felt we were very unlucky ...

  • by Matthew O'Greel
  • Thursday, 28th September 2006

Alan Pardew shares his thoughts on tonight's 3-0 defeat in Italy ...

We had great chances and the keeper has made two or three fantastic saves. If we had scored the first goal I think then everybody knew it was 'game on'.

Unfortunately we conceded with what was perhaps their first shot on target, and then gifted them a second goal. Gabby would normally put that in the stands but because he feels we're chasing the game he's taken a bit of a gamble - and it's cost us.

We're big enough to stand up to errors - all of us - and we have to put ourselves right for Sunday. Now we can concentrate on improving our position in the Premiership.

We felt we were very unlucky in the first game, and the difference between the two sides was that although we created more chances and dominated posession they just had that little bit of quality in forward areas that perhaps we're lacking at the moment, due to a lack of confidence. But that will return and we just need to take ourselves forward in the Premiership now and start getting our season going.

I think that if you look around the [Palermo] team you see strength in every area. There really wasn't a weakness to exploit. I thought Carlton Cole did absolutely brilliant against two fantastic centre-halfs tonight.

So there were some green shoots for us and we know we need to win on Sunday. That would help to make everyone feel a little bit better about ourselves. I feel we're a decent team that perhaps has not got going in the last three weeks.

I think we have to return to what we're about really. We've tried to emphasise that, and I thought there were a lot of positives tonight. Although I'm disappointed - and disappointed for our fans who were outstanding - I'm not disheartened. I saw some signs tonight and we need to take them into Sunday.

Are the players disappointed? They're a young team and they were desperate to do well in Europe. We've been bumping into loads of fans today who shared the hotel with us and they were brilliant. They feel like they've let them down. I said to them 'let's forget about that, it's done now'. They'll all be up for us on Sunday to help us recover and we're hoping to do that.

There's been a lot of conspiracy theories but I think the unit's pretty tight. We know that a couple of wins will make everyone feel better and that's what we need to do, basically.

I think the side needs a lift; it might come from an individual player, it might come from the referee - who knows? We're looking for something to spark us because potentially we've got a lot of talent in the team and it will come through, without a shadow of doubt.

It was a really tough draw for us and the scoreline doesn't reflect our performance but that's the facts of it and we have to learn from that. But we will, we'll take lessons from this; it's been a good experience - albeit brief.

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