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Pardew critical of 'awful' Newcastle

Alan Pardew and Brendan Rodgers watch the action © PA Photos

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Newcastle are firmly in the relegation mix and manager Alan Pardew has admitted they were awful in the 6-0 mauling by Liverpool.

The Magpies are only five points above the relegation spots, having played a game more, and they were overwhelmed at St James' Park in front of the ESPN cameras.

It was clear what Pardew felt of the performance, as he said: "We got a bad start, never got going and it was an awful performance from us. As far as I am concerned, we are going to have to do something about that for next week.

"We have to stick together now as a group and get ourselves organised and disciplined as we got run ragged today.

"We have got three games to go to put it right and we will need to get one win.

"They were very good today, they had energy and every time they broke through they had numbers and got at us with real energy. But that is no excuse for our performance, we were very poor.

"We are going to have to come out fighting as we have had two tough days at home and in terms of performance I would say this is below Sunderland. We have got work to do.

Wigan boss Roberto Martinez claimed his "magnificent'' team had been denied victory against Tottenham by a wrongly-awarded free-kick. The Latics led 2-1 when Emmerson Boyce turned the ball into his own net, but Martinez was unhappy with the award that led to the goal.

"If you see the replays, it puts extra salt in the wounds," Martinez said. "It was not a free-kick - it should never have been a free-kick. Kyle Walker is pulling Jean Beausejour and he is too honest, staying on his feet. We need to accept that - sometimes when you are down there, the results or the lucky breaks don't go your way.''

Tottenham remain fifth and asked whether he regarded today's result as two points dropped or a point gained in the pursuit of Champions League football, Spurs boss Andre Villas-Boas said: "It depends on the results tomorrow of our opponents. It is intimately related to that.

"We can still be in control of our own destiny or not after tomorrow's results. Normally away from home a point is important at this stage of the season.

"When everybody needs three points, I think it is a difficult situation for teams. It all depends on what happens tomorrow."

Emmerson Boyce turned the ball into his own net © PA Photos

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Stoke assistant boss Dave Kemp believes people within the club can start leading normal lives again in the wake of their latest win.

"You are always pleased when you do hit 40, but we can't relax,'' said Kemp, standing in for manager Tony Pulis for the second successive post-game press conference. "I don't like setting targets. There is a danger in thinking 'well, we've got to 40 we can relax, we can take out foot off the gas'.

"But we've three games to go and we're quite capable of getting 49 points, so let's go for them and we'll look at the table at the end of the season. As far as I'm concerned there's still work to do''

Norwich boss Chris Hughton said: "Today we were up against a Stoke side at their most direct and most physical. But you know what you are going to get when you come here, and I don't have too many complaints. It's something you have to deal with.

"I thought, if anything, they would get even more direct in the second half and we would have our chances. But to concede so early in the second half really hurt us, and with this defeat it means we've still work to do. We've two home games, which is a plus, and the situation is still in our hands.''

West Brom boss Steve Clarke described his side's 3-0 win at Southampton as 'almost perfect'.

"I think the win is the most important topic,'' he said. "We've been scratching around for a win a bit recently.

"The performances have been okay by and large. We have become a little bit of a reactive team, where we wait to the game happens and then we go chasing it.

"We do that quite well but today we spoke about getting the first goal, we did that and from there we controlled the game.

"It was almost a perfect away performance. The three front players were great, not just causing Southampton a problem but defensively they worked hard for the team, closed the game down at the right times.

Southampton manager Mauricio Pochettino said: "From my point of view we just didn't start in the game. We didn't really get into the game at all. We didn't feel comfortable, especially when we conceded the first goal in the sixth minute. Then we became a bit fearful of their attacking strikers, who were quite fast, strong and physically fit. From that point on we were uncomfortable and never really got into the game."

Everton were 1-0 winners over Fulham and manager David Moyes believes his side have to win their remaining three matches to stand any chance of qualifying for Europe.

"All we can do is try to win our games," said Moyes. "If we can do that and see how we do - we have beaten last year's total with those points today and that hopefully shows a sign of progress.

"We will try to keep it going until the end of the season and if we do get in Europe we will have certainly earned it because the sides above us are all good sides."

Fulham boss Martin Jol felt his side came up against a side who were far hungrier. He said: ""At the start you saw they (Everton) were eager, hungry, and they caused us some problems but it was only 1-0. They were a bit more physical and that showed in the first half.

"In the second half we were better in possession and with a little bit more luck we could have had a point but they could have scored two or three goals as well."

Manchester City beat West Ham 2-1 and assistant manager David Platt said it was what was expected following the loss to Tottenham. He said: "It is the response we expected. I have been saying for weeks that this club has got to a point where it is obligated to win football matches, irrespective of whether there is anything on the game.

"We all expected Manchester United to get over the line at some point. Our disappointment last week was because of our result at Tottenham, not because we gave Manchester United an opportunity to close the title out.''

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