Alan Pardew praises 'outstanding' Crystal Palace after thrashing Newcastle

Alan Pardew declared his delight with Crystal Palace's display as they hammered his former side Newcastle 5-1.

Palace's attack caused Newcastle all kinds of problems as they came from behind to win with two goals each from James McArthur and Yannick Bolasie and one from Wilfried Zaha.

"The performance was outstanding today," said Pardew. "We had problems everywhere for the opposition in terms of what we were delivering.

"I thought we started well and should have scored before they did. It was a poor goal we conceded but the response was just what we needed."

Pardew was also full of praise for striker Connor Wickham, who came in for some criticism for his display during their 1-0 defeat at home to his former club Sunderland on Monday night, but played a key role in several of Palace's goals.

"Connor gave us something we always hoped he could with his assists," Pardew said. "But we were irresistible today, we're sixth in the division because we're a good team, it was nothing to do with the opposition."

Pardew named an unchanged side despite their defeat against Sunderland, and the decision paid off as his side ran riot.

"Sometimes you have to show faith, it would have been easy to make changes, the three or four offensive players were poor on Monday night, today it was the opposite."

Pardew also refused to answer any questions about his former side Newcastle, insisting he only wanted to talk about Palace.

"I don't want to say too much about Newcastle because I get criticised for whatever I say," he added. "I just want to talk about my team and I thought we did a great job."

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