Pardew clears up ticket row

Newcastle boss Alan Pardew insists that he never meant to encourage the club's fans to travel to the Wigan match this weekend without tickets.

Newcastle boss tells fans not to travel without tickets

Newcastle United boss Alan Pardew insists that he never meant to encourage the club's fans to travel to the Wigan Athletic match this weekend without tickets. Earlier this week, Pardew urged supporters to turn up in force at the DW Stadium for Saturday's Premier League fixture in which the Magpies will attempt to secure a seventh successive victory. On the back of Pardew's previous comments, Wigan raised their concerns and insisted that they would not be able to increase Newcastle's initial 4,500 allocation and the Magpies released their own statement tell fans not to travel without tickets. Pardew is adamant he was not suggesting people travel without tickets or try to find seats among the home fans. Pardew said: "I would like to apologise to anyone who may have misinterpreted the comments I made about our supporters travelling to Wigan on Saturday. "I have nothing but respect for Wigan Athletic as a club and clearly would never wish to interfere with any ticketing or safety issues Wigan have in place at their stadium. "I was simply trying to encourage as many of our fans as possible to get to the game to cheer us on, but of course only through legitimate means." The Magpies currently sit fourth in the table, three points ahead of Tottenham and four better off than Chelsea as they close in on an unlikely qualification for the Champions League. Another three points at Wigan could prove crucial to their hopes, although Roberto Martinez's men have recently got the better of both Manchester United and Arsenal.