Pardew's side, who now sit seventh in the Premier League, just
two-points behind fourth-placed West Ham.
It was the Magpies' new star striker Perez who produced a
moment of magic to put the visitors in front.
A team who between late March and mid-October earned just
one league success in 14 games have now won four in a row in
the Premier League and after a victory secured by goals from
Ayoze Perez and Fabricio Coloccini, Pardew expressed his
gratitude to Ashley for the patience shown to him. "Everyone
was pulling at him when we weren't winning any games and
he stuck with me and was very supportive," he said.
"Our performance level has gone up with the confidence," he
added. "It is difficult to be manager of Newcastle when you are
losing [because] excuses don't really wash with our fans but
we weren't far away in those games at the start of season.
"Newcastle fans are an extreme. They are emotional – when
they win they go mad, when they lose they go mad and we
weren't winning."
The travelling supporters in the Smethwick End were going
mad for the right reasons after a Newcastle performance which
highlighted the canny business done in the summer when they
picked up Spanish forward Perez for £1.6m from Tenerife and
Daryl Janmaat, the Netherlands' World Cup right-back, for
£5m from Feyenoord.
Perez's opening goal on the stroke of half-time was a splash of
colour on a grey first half, and underlined the potential of the
Spain Under-21 striker. Remy Cabella picked out the
overlapping Janmaat and theright-back delivered a low ball
across to Perez, who diverted it into the far corner with a
delicious flick of his heel. His two previous appearances had
brought winning goals against Tottenham and Liverpool and
it is not hard to see why the slight 21-year-old, voted
'revelation of the season' in the Spanish second division last
term, was also pursued by FC Porto last summer.
Pardew said: "We thought his physicality could be an issue
but he had such technical quality, you are hoping that's going
to see him through and it has. That goal was worthy of
winning any game."
During a misleadingly bright start, Newcastle had gone close
to an early breakthough when Sammy Ameobi sent a looping
25-yard shot on to the top of Ben Foster's crossbar,
goal was their first shot on target. Once in front, they never
looked like surrendering their advantage to a subdued Albion
side and added a second goal following a half-cleared corner
in the 62nd minute. Janmaat was involved again, recycling the
danger with a brilliant cross to the far post, where Coloccini
arrived behind Craig Dawson to bury a header for his first
league goal since January 2011.
Ayoze Perez celebrates his goal against West Brom
Pardew, noting Janmaat's involvement in both goals, said:
"He is an attacking full-back and we have had to curtail that a
bit, as in the Dutch league you don't get exploited as much as
in the Premier League but he has learned quickly."
For Albion, by contrast, this was a disappointing afternoon
summed up by an awful miss by Andre Wisdom, who failed
even to test Tim Krul, the Newcastle goalkeeper, from the edge
of the six-yard box in the second half.
There was an underwhelming display too from Saido
Berahino, their seven-goal leading scorer who received his
first England call-up on Thursday. He had only one chance of
note, a rising shot that Krul swatted over after Victor
Anichebe's lay-off. Alan Irvine, the Albion manager, said: "He
probably had his poorest game. Everybody will probably ask
'is it a result of what's just happened to him?', but you can
have a poor game at any time."
Fabricio Coloccini celebrates his goal
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.
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