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Unhappy Pardew questions Newcastle's passion

Cheik Tiote was sent off in the second half of Newcastle's FA Cup defeat to Stevenage © Getty Images

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Alan Pardew admitted his Newcastle players looked tired after a hectic run of fixtures in Saturday's 3-1 FA Cup defeat to Stevenage, but he also claimed they lacked the hunger of their League Two opponents.

Newcastle were well beaten in their third round encounter, despite fielding a host of first-team regulars. Pardew, who saw his side smash West Ham 5-0 in midweek, insists the result was partially due to fatigue, but also down to a lack of effort.

"Four or five players looked like they were shot," Pardew said. "We've had a really tough period. The injuries and the effort took its toll tonight and unfortunately we were on the end of a defeat that we wouldn't like.

"There's a few in there that need to understand what this game's about. The Premier League is all well and good but a few young boys got caught out tonight by the passion and the physical side of Stevenage. They bossed patches of the game through their sheer endeavour and enthusiasm. We've got to match that and we didn't do that."

Pardew confirmed he will challenge the red card handed out to Cheik Tiote, who received his marching orders after a second-half lunge. The former West Ham and Charlton manager was unhappy with the decision and revealed Newcastle will make their official complaint to the FA.

"I didn't think it was a sending-off at all. I didn't think it at the time," commented Pardew. "The speed he's going at is the speed he usually tackles at - he's so fast. He has gone off the ground but with one foot and the ball is clearly away from the player. There was no intent. I've watched it three times and I've gone to see the referee and I will definitely appeal that because I think that's really harsh on the boy. He was obviously trying to get us back in the game and make an impact.''

Stevenage manager Graham Westley felt his side were good value for their victory after causing one of the biggest shocks in FA Cup history. Stacy Long's deflected shot opened the scoring and Michael Bostwick extended their lead. Tiote was sent off for the visitors but Joey Barton pulled one back before Peter Winn sealed the home team's victory.

Westley hailed his players, telling ESPN: "It was fantastic. They deserved what they got for putting in a performance like that against a Premiership side. We played the game on the front foot and played the better football over 90 minutes and it was good to see the goals go in.

"A lot of our thoughts today have been about how we're going to win 5-0. It might sound daft but winning 1-0 is doing 20% of that. We went into the game with that plan and we did a little bit more than 20% of that.

"In the first half we were solid, dependable, but made too many negative decisions. In the second half they took more positive decisions and trusted themselves a bit more. You've got to create the mindset amongst people that says we know we're at our strongest when we're going forwards, when we're dictating the terms of the game."

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