Pardew demands Toon bounce back from Fulham thrashing with Cup run

Alan Pardew has ordered shell-shocked Newcastle to switch on and give the club an FA Cup run.

The United boss has used the warm weather training trip to Tenerife to bring his squad closer together after a potentially destabilising defeat which included conceding five goals at Fulham at the weekend.

United players return home today to finalise their preparations for the trip to Brighton at the weekend in the FA Cup fourth round, a competition Pardew has top of his agenda to make a mark this season.

He says there is “no panic or worry” at the collapse at Fulham, but has issued a warning to his back five that a repeat performance won’t be tolerated.

Pardew said: “We just lost our way at the weekend. The back five - who have been magnificent for us this season - have had a disappointing day.

“That can happen in the Premier League, but there is nothing to panic or worry about.

We are in a fantastic position, and if our fans are a little bit concerned after Saturday, they shouldn’t be. We are looking at those above, don’t worry about that.

“Fulham was a disappointing game, but other results mean we are still right in there, and that’s where we want to be.

“Arsenal lost, Stoke got beaten and Chelsea got a draw, so we find ourselves in a not too different position to where we were at the start of that game.

“It’s gone now - there’s nothing we can do about it. We will reflect on the second half and make sure that never happens again.

“We came out here to Tenerife on the back of a disappointing result, which isn’t ideal, but it is nice to have a break and bring us all together. After that result we needed it, just to go over a few things in the next couple of days.

“We can’t switch off like we did at Fulham.”

If there's one major thing we have learned from the Fulham game it's that no matter how easy a game is (first half) it's a game of two halves and the Fulham game would be an excellent tutorial for up and coming young footballers to watch which clarifies just what a game of two halves is.
We took it far too easy and defended too high up allowing their pace to out do us so I'd be surprised if we allow that to happen again.
We might get beat by a few goals in some games, which is part and parcel of it but I can't see us surrendering like that.
We need a good cup result against Brighton and follow that up with a good show against Blackburn to put us back on track and put the Fulham game to bed.