Pardew hails United triumph

Newcastle United boss Alan Pardew was proud of his men after their 1-0 win over Queens Park Rangers on Sunday.

Leon Best’s 37th-minute strike gave Newcastle a hard-fought win, putting them into sixth in the English Premier League.

Pardew, who was remaining cautious when asked if his side could remain in the top six, said he was happy with his team’s efforts, particularly with Cheick Tiote and Demba Ba missing.

“We have had two hurdles to negotiate since they went (to the Africa Cup of Nations) – Blackburn in the FA Cup which we won, and again today – and so far it has been a case of (passing with) flying colours,” he said.

“You have to remember that a lot of the players did a good job, that will only give them confidence to go forward.”

“We are sixth above Liverpool and we deserve to be there. Now it is about the next period of games. If we can get a couple of wins that we will get a hell of a boost for when our two boys come back.”

QPR boss Mark Hughes – in charge of the Londoners for the first time – said he felt his team deserved to get something out of the encounter.

“I felt we created a number of reasonable chances and on another day those would go in for us,” he told Sky Sports.

“It would have been ideal if we could have gone something out of the game because on the performance overall, we deserved something.”