Boat-race rubbing Roy Hodgson burbled:

"It's a major setback, a major blow, I'm angry. I thought we played well in the first half, we had most of the ball, asked a lot of questions of their back four and got into good positions," added Hodgson, who inexplicably left Joe Cole on the bench. "But we didn't do that in the second half, we gave the ball away far too often, didn't get enough quality balls into their half and gave away two bad goals.

"The major problem was the second goal, which was an unbelievably bad goal to give away. That’s the bottom line. When you concede a goal like that, it’s going to have a major effect on the team’s confidence. We weren’t looking that troubled at 1-1; we weren’t exactly being smashed or bombarded. Newcastle had not put us under massive pressure but when you concede like that, you can almost see in the faces of the players, it’s a case of ‘whoops, here we go again’.

"How can we change things? You’ve just got to win; it’s as simple as that,” he said. “There is no magic formula, I’m afraid. You have to play better than we did in the second half – if we had played for 90 minutes in exactly the same way, and passed the ball in the same way, and kept our shape as we did in the first half, we would have had a good chance. But we didn’t.

"I thought we played well in the first-half, and I had high hopes we would continue to play well but I was disappointed with our second-half display- we let Newcastle back into the game.

"I came into this job to try and win every game - I can’t say it’s harder or easier than I thought – I just need to keep working hard. It’s the job I signed on to do. You find me a football manager who’s worthy of his sword, who doesn’t wake up in middle of night after matches, and I’ll give you a good headline.

"It will be great to have him (Stevie Gerrard) back, but even he could not have done anything about the second goal and that is what is going to haunt me when I ride home tonight, and when I wake up in the middle of the night. That has cost us any chance of getting anything.”

Stats

Reds @ SJP - Premier League Years: 2010/11: Won 3-1 Nolan, Barton, Carroll 2008/09: Lost 1-5 Edgar 2007/08: Lost 0-3 2006/07: Won 2-1 Martins, Solano (pen) 2005/06: Lost 1-3 Ameobi 2004/05: Won 1-0 Robert 2003/04: Drew 1-1 Shearer (pen)  2002/03: Won 1-0 Robert 2001/02: Lost 0-2 2000/01: Won 2-1 Solano, Dyer 1999/00: Drew 2-2 Shearer, Ferguson 1998/99: Lost 1-4 Guivarc'h 1997/98: Lost 0-2 (LC) 1997/98: Lost 1-2 Watson 1996/97: Drew 1-1 Shearer 1995/96: Won 2-1 Ferdinand, Watson 1994/95: Drew 1-1 Lee 1993/94: Won 3-0 Cole 3 Andy Carroll reached double figures for the season with his tenth Premier League goal, while Kevin Nolan weighed in with his eighth and Joey Barton his second. The latter now has five to his name in our colours - and we've won all five games in which he scored. This was the 633rd game that Newcastle have played in the Premier League and of course the first that Alan Pardew oversaw. His is the latest name on a list that now consists of:   Kevin Keegan (143 PL games in charge) Arthur Cox & Terry McDermott (1) Kenny Dalglish (56) Tommy Craig & Terry McDermott (1) Ruud Gullit (40) Steve Clarke (1) Bobby Robson (188) John Carver (1) Graeme Souness (56) Glenn Roeder (52) Nigel Pearson (1) Sam Allardyce (21) Nigel Pearson (1) Kevin Keegan (19) Chris Hughton (7) Joe Kinnear (20)   Alan Shearer (8) Chris Hughton (16) Alan Pardew (1) Full record against the Reds:      P W D L F A SJP 75 30 23 22 111 91 Anfield 74 11 14 49 76 169 League 149 41 37 71 187 260 SJP(FA) 4 4 0 0 6 1 Anf/W 5 0 1 4 3 13 SJP(LC) 1 0 0 1 0 2 Anf 1 1 0 0 1 0 Cup 11 5 1 5 10 16 Tot 160 46 38 76 197 276 2008/09: NUFC after 17 games: 19 points, 14th position (scored 22, conceded 24) 2010/11: NUFC after 17 games: 22 points, 8th position (scored 27, conceded 26) Our coverage of another bonkers week in the history of Newcastle United is online here

Waffle

Welcome back my friends, to the show that never ends.

After another week of outlandish behaviour on Barrack Road, to have a game to watch and a strengthened team to field came as something of a relief from the self-inflicted off-field chaos that had engulfed the club for the umpteenth time. Football stories should never be the lead story on the local news, even up here.

Walking towards the ground, the sea of humanity that occupied the area in front of Old Milburn Reception on that day wasn't replicated and the general age range of the crowd seemed younger - with some local bars quick to cash in by doling out logo'd up pro-Hughton T-shirts.    

Much attention had been devoted pre-match to the behaviour of home fans, with talk of protests, boycotts and various delayed entry schemes. With the game already heading for a 50K gate before Hughton's ousting and ticket prices £35 and upwards though, it seemed unlikely that punters would vote with their feet. That made the pertinent question how the mood of the crowd inside the ground would affect the game.

With memories of the post-Keegan departure game against Hull City in 2008 - and United's slipshod display - still fresh in the mind, that was something of a concern. In the event,as many cheers as jeers greeted the appearance of the teams, with only a couple of Hughton-related banners in the Gallowgate End giving any real clue to the untutored that all wasn't well round these parts. The biggest difference two years on proved to be that United scored early, breaking the off-field tension and seemingly strengthening belief on it. 

On that basis, Kevin Nolan's opener was as important as any of the other 25 he's claimed in our colours, turning the crowd's attention back to the main business in hand - that of collecting a desperately-needed three points for the first time in six games. 

With three minutes on the clock, the stadium reverberated to a venomous refrain of "Get Out of Our Club...." but half an hour later, the Gallowgate End had moved on to "Any O'Brien" - peace in our time. Sort of. Rather than any sort of vindication of the disgracefully shoddy boardroom behaviour indulged in here though, anger was channeled into positive support for the team. And if that's then interpreted as endorsing the regime, then we're guilty as charged.

Following his solo introduction to the media, there was never going to be any sort of pre-match public unveiling of Alan Pardew and he took his place in the dugout just before kickoff, with only the briefest clap of acknowledgement. Accompanying him was Steve Stone, while short-term shop minder Peter Beardsley was banished to the stand. So there is still a vestige of player power in the home dressing room then... 

In the brief lull between Pardew's appointment and this game, much discussion had focused on the club's choice of manager, the unprecedented five and a half year contract handed to him and precisely what he was experienced in to be such a shoe-in for the job. Searching Pardew's past revealed that he'd formerly worked as both a taxi driver and glazier, leading to thoughts that club cost cutting would have him chauffeuring his employers round the town, or mending the smashed window next to the club shop.

From the opening moments of the game though, it soon became clear that "Pards" (as we won't be calling him) was a vastly more experienced than Hughton in the art of pointing - at one point appearing to be giving Stone an astronomy lesson, or unveiling plans for the longest of long ball tactics. 

Still, that and writing in his trainspotters notebook kept him busy, while the players just got on with it, doubtless in the way they would have had were birthday boy Chris Hughton were looking on. And given that both Nolan and Barton had returned to the side and Tiote was having one of his good days (despite an almighty tinkling of his Ivories in the first half via a point-blank shot), then the upturn in quality, threat, confidence and direction were evident. The only person that sought to claim that was down to Pardew was the daft lassie doing post-match player interviews for TV - the new boss wisely batted that line away. 
 
In the other technical area meanwhile, Roy Hodgson struggled to keep his Tourettes tendencies under control and rubbed his face with worrying ferocity. With key men and local lads Jamie Carragher and Stevie Gerrard missing, Kevin Nolan and Joey Barton were the only Merseysiders on view and Liverpool were uniformly poor to a level that had us casting back to the days of Julian Dicks and Dirty Don Hutchison.

1-0 ahead with our first chance of the game, both he and strike partner Shola Ameobi had a couple of half- chances after that to extend our lead against a hesitant Reds side whose best player was the referee. He
seemed intent on helping the visitors get back on terms and two innocuous challenges by Jose Enrique and Sol Campbell were penalised with free-kicks on the edge of the Newcastle area.

Thankfully neither came to anything and Enrique was in the right place as the half ended, with the Spaniard making a timely goal line clearance and Kyrgiakos heading just wide of the United goal. Within four minutes of the restart though, some more comic cuts defending from the ailing Campbell did allow Liverpool to draw level, Krul then making a good block to defy Torres as he bore down on goal.

At that point in the game though, the fans were sufficiently warmed up and inspired by Newcastle's efforts to offer increased support and Carroll came close to restoring the lead when feeding Barton out on the United right - only to head over when a perfect centre was returned to him.

The introduction of Nile Ranger- coming on for the clearly ailing Ameobi - was to decisively change the game, his unpredictable movement caused Liverpool's backline problems and an early self-created chance whistling narrowly wide. That also gave Carroll a vital yard of space and one less defender to wrestle with - both factors that would ultimately determine the destination of the points.

2-1 ahead and with the game boiling up nicely, Newcastle's attempts at running the clock down weren't wholly successful, with Krul's slow play probably adding more time than it wasted. Just seconds later though, the Magpies 'keeper was in the opponent's half, dashing forward to congratulate Andy Carroll on a quite magnificent clincher.

The chorus of anti-Ashley chants that had been heard throughout the game were repeated after the final whistle as the victory did nothing to quell the bad feelings towards those situated in the Director's Box. The new manager meanwhile disappeared swiftly down the tunnel, presumably looking for somewhere where he could pinch himself in case he woke up from this dream start to his managerial reign. 

Losing this game didn't bear thinking about - not least for the almighty hullabaloo that would have followed. 
Only time will tell whether the new manager can oversee what ever is deemed to be progress round these parts. It's difficult to see from this position what more Pardew can do though without further funding - unless his motivational prowess is such that on-field discipline improves and the treatment room stays empty. 

Trying to employ logic or reason where this lot are concerned seems a futile practice, at the end of the day it's all about what happens on the field for the majority of the punters - an attitude seemingly handed down through the generations, running parallel to mistrust and dislike of those in the boardroom.

Does it just come down to luck? He certainly enjoyed some good fortune to have been able to name this XI today, in stark contrast to Chris Hughton, now yet another one of the fallen to add to the Wor Memorial. Experience tells us that things shake down in time; be it Souness going unbeaten in his first nine games, or KK taking ten games to get off the mark.   

It's certainly no stretch of the imagination to see Hughton having overseen this victory, had the events of this week never happened. And those players who gave him praise post-match for playing a part in the win were entirely correct - even if their behaviour had contributed to his demise. 

Where do we go from here? Birmingham.  

Biffa