Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew declares admiration for Steve Kean after turnaround in Blackburn's fortunes

The Magpies’ boss has praised the the job done by the heavily criticised manager, claiming Rovers will be tougher opponents than when the two side met earlier in the season

1 Feb 2012 15:27:00

By Edward Tibbles

More On :  Blackburn Rovers, Newcastle United, Alan Pardew, Steve Kean, Blackburn Rovers vs Newcastle United
Alan Pardew, Newcastle United
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Alan Pardew has spoken of his admiration of the job Steve Kean has done at Blackburn Rovers this season, claiming it will be harder for Newcastle United to take points in their meeting on Wednesday than it was in the reverse fixture earlier this season.

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Pardew also claimed that it will be hard for his side to recreate the 3-1 victory at home because of the turnaround headed by the heavily criticised manager.

The 50-year-old praised Kean’s resilience after turning around the fortunes of the club by taking points from away visits to Anfield and Old Trafford.

"I think Steve Kean has done a terrific job just lately with that team," Pardew told the club’s official website.

"They are a lot stronger and better than they were when we've played them before, and it's going to be a tough game.

"I think they've got stronger and you have to admire him for coming through what was the eye of a storm at that time.

"Now it will be the second half of the season and trying to keep the team in the division, and I hope he does."

The Newcastle boss went on to acknowledge that his side will have to improve on their performance in the 1-0 FA Cup defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion if they are to take anything away from Ewood Park.

Even though the game was largely disappointing, Pardew did find some positives to take from the performance, claiming they need to be more efficient in front of goal.

He said: "We are confident in so much that the performance at Brighton was a good performance in terms of physically and our technical stats, it was a game we would have won normally - there was enough chances there.

"The only criticism was what I spoke about after - that we should have perhaps put a bit more percentage ball in the box, and then we would have created a couple more.

"I think that is something we can correct at Blackburn."

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With countries across the continent gearing up for their final warm-up games ahead of Euro 2012, join us for all the action from Saturday's friendlies. Get in touch with us via Twitter with your reaction.

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19:59 BST
Unfortunately for Northern Ireland, they are trailing the Netherlands 4-0 at half-time. Looks like that one's all sewn up then.
19:54 BST
We're still getting plenty of Hazard chat on Twitter. A few are now saying that he's not worth the hype, others saying he was brilliant(!?) and others (which I agree with), saying he created much of his own hype. What do you think? Get involved!
19:46 BST
Joe Hart has also been giving his thoughts after the Belgium game: "It was a really tough game, a good run out. I thought we played well, [but] we were a little bit bitty at times.

"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.

"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
19:38 BST
Here's Roy Hodgson's reaction to the result and some injury chat: "I'm very pleased, it's been a hard week and we've used a lot of players. There was a lot of disruption in the second-half with substitutions – some forced upon us, some we wanted to do. But it's still a very good end to the week playing against a good Belgian team here. Arguably even stronger than the Norwegian team we played last week and I've got to be more than happy that we've come out with another victory."

"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."

Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
19:35 BST
And another point from today: Eden Hazard wasn't great. Don't think you can judge him on one performance though. What do you think? Is it just a case of too much hype around the Chelsea-bound Belgian?
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