STOKE-ON-TRENT, England, – Stoke City added to Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew’s woes with a 1-0 win at the Britannia Stadium that left the Magpies still searching for their first win of the English Premier League season.
Defeat yesterday means the north-east side has just three points from 18, with only newly promoted Burnley keeping them off the bottom of the table courtesy of having scored fewer goals.
Both Newcastle owner Mike Ashley, among the crowd at Stoke’s ground yesterday, and Pardew have become hate figures for Magpies’ fans.
As if to prove the point, Pardew’s gesture in applauding the Newcastle supporters at full-time was met with yet more verbal abuse.
Prior to this match, Ashley told the Independent newspaper that Pardew would be “finished” if Newcastle were beaten by Stoke, only to subsequently insist he had been joking.
But there was little for anyone connected with Newcastle — some of whose fans carried Sack Pardew banners — to smile about when towering former England striker Peter Crouch gave Stoke the lead by heading in Victor Moses’s cross in the 15th minute.
Newcastle rarely threatened to score an equaliser, with Stoke goalkeeper Asmir Begovic only really having to make one save of note in denying Daryl Janmaat.
Six minutes from time, Newcastle midfielder Jack Colback almost made it 1-1 but his close-range shot hit the crossbar and stayed out.
“It’s slight margins in the game but another defeat,” Pardew told Sky Sports.
