Pardew eager for good start at Sunderland
Newcastle manager Alan Pardew has warned his side not to get lost early on in Sunday's derby clash with Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.
Pardew has already sampled the Wear-Tyne derby before and the former West Ham manager is expecting the game to begin at an electric pace.
Newcastle's last match was a 3-0 defeat to Manchester United, in which they conceded twice in the first 15 minutes, and the Magpies boss is hoping there will be no repeat of such an early collapse this weekend.
"The most important thing at Sunderland is to not get lost at the start of the game, which we did against Man United," Pardew said.
"My experience of these types of games is they start at an electric pace. We must be ready for them. We need to try to get a grip during that early period."
With such an important fixture coming up for the club, Pardew is keen to welcome back from injury defenders Steven Taylor and Fabricio Coloccini, as well as goalkeeper Tim Krul for the visit to Wearside.
"Hopefully all three will be back on Wednesday," he added.
Meanwhile, Pardew was relieved to see African trio Demba Ba, Papiss Cisse and Cheick Tiote return safely from the Senegal v Ivory Coast fixture that had to be abandoned due to crowd trouble at the weekend.
