Soccer: unlikely lads look threat to negativity

Demba Ba. Photo / Getty Images

There may well come a time when we will wonder whatever happened to Alan Pardew's unlikely lads. While the new-look Newcastle continue to occupy the dizzy height of fourth place in the Premier League table, the default mood among many followers of the black and whites remains stuck somewhere in the vicinity of the downcast Bob Ferris in the film version of The Likely Lads.

"In the chocolate box of life the top layer's already gone - and someone's pinched the orange cream from the bottom," he pondered.

Still, for all of the Toon Army's resentment of Mike Ashley's presence at the top layer of their beloved club, of the pinching of Andy Carroll, Kevin Nolan and Joey Barton by opposition clubs, of the lack of re-investment in high-profile replacements, the Magpies are flying high and a feel-good factor threatens to impinge on the negativity.

Pardew's side were at Wolves last night on an unbeaten run of eight matches in all competitions this season - six in the league, two in the Carling Cup.

Newcastle have not been undefeated for so long at the start of a campaign since 1994-95. Not that Pardew has been giving himself and his players a pat on the back. "If you do that, you end up with egg on your face," the Newcastle manager said. "I've spoken to a few of the guys about making sure that we say the right things.

"Our midfield stats have come through and we're the hardest-working group in the division. All those things add up and it's important we remember that it's hard work that's got us where we are."

It is to Pardew's credit that he has lost the guts of the side that took Newcastle to 12th last season - Barton, Nolan, Carroll, Jose Enrique - and yet retained the spirit and the substance that the St James' class of 2010-11 had about them.

In midfield, the French pair Gabriel Obertan and Yohan Cabaye have replaced the Scouse duo Barton and Nolan. Up front, the Paris-born Senegal international Demba Ba - scorer of all three goals in the 3-1 home win against Blackburn last Saturday - has assumed line-leading duties from the Geordie Carroll, who joined Liverpool for £35m more than the free-transfer acquisition from West Ham cost.

Factor in a defence that has conceded the fewest number of goals of all 92 League clubs (three to date) and you might think they would be singing Pardew's praises. You would be wrong.

Ten months on from his appointment in place of the popular Chris Hughton, Pardew has yet to hear his name chanted by the Toon Army. He is still seen as Ashley's puppet. That might change if the man who guided West Ham to the 2006 FA Cup final keeps pulling the strings on the pitch all the way to Wembley.

If his in-form side win their fourth-round Carling Cup tie at Blackburn on October 26 they will be through to the quarter-finals.

Asked to evaluate his lads, he replied: "I honestly can't tell you how good we are. The signs that I'm getting suggest that we are a good side but I think we're a little more vulnerable.

"Last season we were a functional team. We could get goals at set plays. We could eke out a result. This team isn't like that. This team is more about rhythm. And there's more things that can go wrong. Two or three lose confidence and it might not look the same.

"We've got all those battles to come. When we go down to 10 men, can we nick a result? When things really go against us, how are we going to react?"

The Independent