The Magpies are now without a win in four league matches and another draw against Maritimo in the Europa League on Thursday evening, before taking on Pardew’s former team Southampton over the weekend in the Premier League.

Pardew said: “We’ve had a bit of a dip and we’re sad about that, sad for our fans”

“I think it will help if we have our senior players back and hopefully we’ll have one or two back this week and maybe a couple more next week. So that will arm me and make the side stronger.”

It is certainly not time to be pushing any panic buttons at St James’ Park just yet – Newcastle are in twelfth position in the league and only five points away from the top six.

In truth, Pardew’s men have not hit the heights of last season just yet and performances have not been at their best. But, that will all come in time. Players such as Yohan Cabaye coming back into action are key as he is one of the most influential members of this squad.

When Pardew has all of his players to call upon, you will see a big change in performances and results in this Newcastle side and if he is given money to spend in the January transfer window, then a top four finish is certainly not out of the question. If you like a free bet, you will see they are out at 66/1 to finish in the Champions League places.

With Southampton, Stoke City, Wigan and Fulham to come in the league, Newcastle do have a decent run on games on paper. There are of course three Europa League games sandwiched into this though and it is all about how well Pardew can rotate his squad, or even if he is able to with the injury problems he has.

It is an exciting time to be following the Magpies and with the success the boss has had at the club so far, you would back him to turn this mini-blip around.

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From what I saw in the first-half we created the most chances of the game to only for Cissé still under his best form, the visitor side can held us to not scoring the goal we looking for.

Shane did as good as what he can give, Sammy Ameobi also did well but he may still need to sharpened his vision more just like what he does when creating the only goal of this game in second-half.

“When you see great young players coming through it kinds of buoys your spirits and Sammy’s got a big future at this club,” Pardew said after the game. “He’s a creator, he causes havoc, he’s got fantastic technique and he can play four positions.”

The visitors are often sitting deep, but once in a while they also capable of getting forward to counter-attack, which couple of times making quite dangerous situation in our six-yard box.

Couple things that I noticed from our squad performance last night was Anita once again anonymous, perhaps he’s still not on his preffered position or needs more time to settled.

Tiote was eventually booked again for a foul on Ivan Trickovski. He was caught in possession just outside our penalty area to give Brugge a rare chance to attacking us.

“Brugge are a good side and this was a tough game,” said Pardew. “It’s a big win for us.”

Newcastle United:

Harper; Santon, Perch, Williamson, Ferguson (Cabaye 81); Tiote, Anita (Shola Ameobi h-t), Bigirimana; Obertan, Cisse, Sammy Ameobi (Coloccini 73).

Subs not used: Krul, Ben Arfa, Ba, Adam Campbell.

Club Brugge:
Jorgacevic; Hogli, Hoefkens, Jordi, Buysse; Jorgensen, Refaelov (Trickovski 56), Odjidja, Blondel (Van Acker 84), Lestienne; Bacca.

Subs not used: Kujovic, Vleminckx, Vasquez, Vansteenkiste, Engels.

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We had a string of good chances, and hit the woodwork twice and had a similar number of goal-line clearances to them. The draw was a fair result, although 0-0 wasn’t “right”. For us Elliot will suddenly not be viewed as totally useless, mad some good saves.

The defence, our current fist choice defence got away with it. Maritimo had far too many chances and a real team would have had us thre or four down before we’d even woke up.

Midfield which was our “complete beginners” area was okay. Bigirimana was at times delightful, and was generally very good. That he is only 18 is great. It will be amusing to see him with more European games than Premiership games.

Gosling was okay, less wasteful then in the Greek games Amalfitano played on the left and didn’t really show much. He didn’t really do much wrong, but just didn’t have any park.

Obertan is so bloody frustrating. Speed to beat his defender at will but no ability to which colour shirt his team mates are wearing. Vuckic laboured away, but not much happened for him.

I have big hopes for Shola, he really could mature into a classy player in the next couple of years. He could have scored with a header, hit the bar after some nice skill. With some luck he could be in the team for years to come.

Of the subs Sammy looked great, although he didn’t need to make fun of Obertan by mimicking his centring skills. Sammy will probably start ahead of Vuckic next time. Marveaux didn’t really show much, Ferguson looked busy.

Conclusion – could have won, could have lost. Good to see Birgi continuing to impress, nice to see Sammy back.

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