Pardew ready to dig in

Alan Pardew was digging in for a scrap on Saturday night after seeing Newcastle slip to a second successive Barclays Premier League defeat at St James' Park.

Six days after succumbing tamely to West Ham, the Magpies were largely outplayed by Swansea before slipping to a 2-1 defeat which left them in the bottom half of the table, a far cry from last season's high-flying heroics.

A philosophical Pardew said: "You have to understand that in a managerial career at any football club, you are going to have some times when things don't go for you. Now we have had a week where it really has conspired against us in a lot of ways."

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