Monday 22 December 2014 13:35, UK
Alan Pardew believes his Newcastle United side were unfortunate to lose the Tyne-Wear derby and insisted they could have beaten Sunderland, had things gone their way.
Adam Johnson’s 90th-minute strike snatched Sunderland the points at St James’ Park on Sunday after a hotly-contested game on Tyneside appeared to heading for a goalless draw.
Sunderland’s victory now means Newcastle have lost their last four games to their bitter rivals, a record which neither team had managed in the fixture's 130-year history.
"That’s as painful as it gets, to lose in the last minute like that," Pardew told Sky Sports.
"We were chasing the game a little bit and over committing and we kind of warned the players that Sunderland could score a set play - and we got punished for it.
"But we played well today - on another day, we would have won that. We had good chances, Perez was probably the brightest player on the pitch, but it didn't fall for us.
"We want to win here at St James’ Park. We would take the draw now but if we came off saying we didn’t push for the win, then it would have been disappointing. You kind of need to balance between pushing too hard and maybe we did a little bit.
"I'm not going to criticise any of my players today. They gave everything they could, but it wasn’t to be."
Until Johnson’s late strike, Newcastle were on course to end a three-game losing streak to the Black Cats.
The performance was in stark contrast to the two previous meetings at St James’ Park where Sunderland ran out 3-0 winners on both occasions, and Pardew was adamant his side deserved credit for their improved display.
"I thought it was a good game actually. Sunderland played well first half and probably just edged it but second half for sure, we went up a level," Pardew added.
"Perhaps we should be sitting here as winners but in fact we’ve lost. So we have to learn from this, we’re still in a decent position in the league and we now have to regroup and take our form, especially our second-half form today, to Man United.
"I was really pleased with Jak [Alnwick] because they put him under real pressure today and he stood up to it, so well done to him. But it’s just disappointing for our fans and us, because we didn’t want to end up defeated today.
"I’m proud of the way the team has approached the game today on another, we could have won but it wasn’t our day in a lot of respects.
"In terms of myself, I will look at the replays of the game and make sure we learn from the errors we made. We have to make sure we don’t expose ourselves here at St James’ Park.
"The criticism that’s going to come our way, we’ll have to accept. We’ve got five days until Man United so we can’t listen to it or absorb it. We have to prepare ourselves for the next game, which we will do from now."
