Pardew fears for future

Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew admits a “big question mark” hangs over his future, but hopes his side can turn their season around.

Pardew’s men are second bottom in the Premier League, winless through six matches after a 1-0 loss at Stoke City on Monday.

The 53-year-old is under growing pressure and was jeered by the travelling fans at the Britannia Stadium.

Pardew said he wanted to continue fighting for his job, and insisted he respected the supporters’ opinions.

“It’s tough where we are at the moment,” he told a news conference.

“The fans are giving their honest opinion of what they believe. I looked at them at the end, I clapped them at the end to show I respect their views.

“I’m not going to hide from it. I know there’s a big question mark about me being at this football club.

“The only way I can answer it is to do the job the best of my ability and try and come up with answers. That’s what I’m going to try and do.”

Peter Crouch’s 15th-minute header was all that separated the two teams, with Jack Colback going closest for the visitors when he hit the crossbar late on.

Pardew said he was honest with the players post-match, wanting to find the answers after they struggled to create chances.

The former Southampton manager said he would consider making changes, even to the system.

“I’m not going to make any excuses. We’re quite honest with ourselves in the dressing room that we need to create more,” Pardew said.

“We had a big chance with Jack, who’s beating himself up about it. If that goes in, I think we all knew what we were going to do.

“If we scored tonight, we were going to get the ball and try and get the winner because we knew winning is everything tonight.

“We need to get a win. We need to get it quick.”