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Pardew certain of Newcastle's Premier League survival
12-Mar-2013 5:43:00 AM
The Toon boss has insisted that his side's 2-1 win at home to Stoke City has preserved their top-flight status and allows them to concentrate on the Europa League
Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew has insisted that his side's 2-1 win against Stoke City has confirmed their Premier League survival.After an impressive league campaign last season, the Toon have been in poor form this time round, but Sunday's victory against the Potters moves them nine points clear of the relegation zone.
Pardew believes the cushion is enough to guarantee safety, and is now focusing his efforts on Thursday evening, when his side host Anzhi Makhachkala in the second leg of their Europa League last-16 clash, with the tie in Moscow finishing goalless.
"That's [Premier League survival] done; we don't need to worry about that now," he told BBC Newcastle.
"What we've done is set ourselves up for what I'm hoping is going to be a special night for us.
"We've set the scene for that and I can't wait already. I hope we get as many people as we can afford to come fill the place up."
With both league and European prorities to balance, the 51-year-old has been forced to rotate his squad this season, but after the victory over Stoke, Pardew will now deploy his best side against his Russians.
"We've approached it in an intelligent way," he continued.
"In a way that we have dealt with the team as it comes, put a team out that is good enough, and we've had to do that. We've had so many injuries that we had to put out the team that we had.
"There are too many games, but now we're at the nitty gritty - the real serious business, playing against real quality.
"I'll play my best team - that win [against Stoke] has helped me do that."
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