Alan Pardew hails classy Yohan Cabaye
Posted Sunday, October 23, 2011 by The Sun
HAPPY ... Alan Pardew
ALAN PARDEW hailed Yohan Cabaye after the Frenchman maintained Newcastle's superb start to the season with a late winner against Wigan.
Cabaye curled the ball past Ali Al Habsi from the edge of the box in the 81st minute to finally shatter the visitor's brave resistance and stretch the Toon's unbeaten start to nine matches.
Newcastle boss Pardew said: "Yohan is a really class player and he brings an elegance to us that everybody really appreciates. He's hit a real cracker to get up and running.
"He's a level-headed person and footballer. He's settled in and his quality shows every week. His goal will endear him to the fans even more."
Pardew admitted his side had struggled to get to grips with the Latics, whom he praised for their attitude despite travelling north on the back of five straight losses.
He added: "We spoke all week about our attitude and application being the same as the Spurs game and it is very difficult to get that into the players' psyche once the game starts.
"Great credit to Wigan in their approach to the game because they were faster and crisper than us, but we must have something in the team to get to the break at 0-0.
"In the second half I felt we were better after a little chat and I also felt we'd score. If our fans are a little bit disappointed with our performance it was worth the admittance just for the goal."
Wigan boss Roberto Martinez admitted his side are running out of hard luck stories after their sixth straight league loss left them rooted to the bottom of the table.
Victor Moses and Hugo Rodallega both had fine chances in a superb opening period for the visitors, but they were made to pay for their failure to nudge ahead.
Martinez said: "In a way we did everything we had to do — we neutralised Newcastle and didn't allow them to be themselves and we created the best chances in the early period.
"If we could have scored that first goal it would have been a completely different game. We are really frustrated and we got punished by a piece of quality.
"I think in some ways even a draw would have been a difficult result to take but we are not getting any luck. In football you have to work very hard to get that luck."
However Martinez insisted he would take plenty of positives out of a performance which bore little resemblance to the comedy of errors which led to defeat at home to Bolton last week.
The Spaniard added: "I'm not pessimistic, I'm happy and proud in the manner we approached the game.
"Overall we were stronger and better than the home side and that is a very good sign for the future."
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