Alan Pardew commented:

"I’d settle for 1-0 every week - we have big games coming up. If we get a win against West Ham it will be a good start under my tenure and I’m very pleased. The most important message for a club as big as us is that we should expect to win every game, regardless of the opposition, and then we see where we fall.

"The most pleasing factor, I think, was our discipline, and the fact that all of the players reacted very well to losing Andy Carroll. He's part of the team, but we decided to show it wasn't about Andy Carroll – it was about the squad and the group. I'm sure Andy Carroll was jumping up and down at home, but it was a brilliant performance from the players.

"We have focused a little bit on some of our indiscipline in defending, and at Wigan, I could not fault them. It was an outstanding performance."

On Joey Barton:

"He has been excellent, not just on the pitch but off it as well. I take people as I find them and I think if he can continue in this vein of form, he could be Newcastle's player of the year. He has been brilliant this season.

"I thought it was a tough challenge, a typical Joey challenge, but I didn't think there was anything malicious in it - the yellow card was the correct decision. I think Joey is aware that he carries that baggage from earlier in his career, but you are talking about a guy who has shown nothing but professionalism since I have been here."

On Leon Best - reported by the Sunday Sun to be available for transfer at a cost of £500K:

"That's not true at all. Leon played a really nice cameo. It was good to see the fans reaction to him, which I thought was positive and good. He put his life on the line with a couple of challenges out there in the short period he was on. Leon could very well feature in the next two games."

On preferring Steve Harper to Tim Krul:

"It was tough on Tim, and I said that to him and I didn't make the decision lightly. But Steve's experience, and the fact he sat on the bench watching the Premier League years unfold here, says to me Harps deserves to be in. It is Harps' time. I was really pleased for him – he was calm and assured – and he added a little bit to the team."

On reported interest in Robbie Keane, David Bentley, Jamie O'Hara and others from White Hart Lane:

"I can't say we haven't spoken to Spurs, because I was speaking to them last week, and we talked about players. I think they want some movement, and we want some movement. Whether we take a player from Spurs is a question I can't answer, but we're looking at the market, and we want to bring an offensive player in."

On reports of interest in David Beckham:

"The reason I haven’t dismissed it is because I haven’t dismissed anybody. But it is unlikely and there have been no talks. We’ve got to get away from David Beckham. We’re in the market, but we’re going sit down and talk about transfers tomorrow."

Despite the absence of top scorer Andy Carroll through injury, United enjoyed a winning start to 2011 thanks to a close range effort from Shola Ameobi. His strike was only the second goal that we've ever managed in six league & cup visits here and a first from open play. 

The three points though were of immeasurable importance, having scraped a draw against Wigan on Tyneside earlier in the season. Losing this one would have set the alarm bells ringing, given that our points return from the same number of games would have emulated that of the 2008/09 campaign. 

Shola's seventh goal of the season should really have been registered from our first attack of the game, when he contrived to head over from close range after connecting with Danny Simpson's fine right wing cross.

Ameobi was one of five changes to the starting XI beaten at Spurs, Jose Enrique and Kevin Nolan available again and Peter Lovenkrands preferred to Wayne Routledge. There was also a recall for Steve Harper, absent since injuring a shoulder during the game at Everton in September.

After taking the lead against an unconvincing Latics side missing suspended Toon old boy Charles N'Zogbia (who scored twice at Gallowgate in the 2-2 draw earlier in the season), United should have won more convincingly. 

Centre back pair Fabricio Coloccini and Steven Taylor both headed against the crossbar, while Lovenkrands was played in by Joey Barton but took too long to try and fashion a shooting chance and the ball was cleared. Substitute Leon Best also looked set to mark his top flight debut for the Magpies with a goal in the closing stages, but shot wide when confronted with the Wigan 'keeper. 

At the other end, former Magpies reserve Gary Caldwell saw his header bounce back off the bar, Hugo Rodallega putting the rebound over from only a few yards out. Harper had earlier been forced make an excellent stop from on-loan Tom Cleverley's curling effort.

As half time approached United look like doubling their advantage against the top flight's leakiest home defence, when Jose Enrique's perfect ball for Jonas Gutierrez sent him through on goal. However the winger flicked a shot at the keeper when he could have rounded Al Habsi.

The lacklustre 'Latics appeared to be feeling the ill-effects of holding Arsenal to a draw on this ground four days earlier and proved incapable of troubling Harper. A hopeful penalty claim against Taylor for handball was waved away by referee Howard Webb and the whistler showed some leniency when Barton went in high - but one-footed - on substitute James McArthur.

It was Enrique who came closest to finding the target and in three minutes of added time, curling a right-footer just over after Cheick Tiote had kept the ball by the corner flag. Alan Pardew's side comfortably held out to claim the manager's first maximum away points haul though and halt a run of three defeats on the road.

He looked a slightly relieved man at the end, doubtless conscious of the pressure that would have resulted from failing to end our losing sequence here. As he'd said in the run up to this game, three successive draws from the Liverpool, Manchester City and Spurs games would have been deemed a solid return - however in this hindquarters foremost campaign, the humbling of Hodgson raised expectations that were then doused by a pair of uninspired displays.

Winning this one 2-0 would have seen us sneak into ninth spot but one goal was enough to do the trick; United creating and missing more chances than in any other away game this season which is encouraging, to a point. After conceding ten goals in our previous trio of road trips, the clean sheet was almost as highly prized - and something of a rarity for a top flight game featuring Steven Taylor (the first in 14 PL outings for him). 

Given the circumstances of his departure from West Ham in December 2006, Pardew will doubtless be looking for more from his side for Wednesday's equally crucial game. Then-Hammers Chairman Eggert Magnusson described Pardew's relationship with the players then as a "cancer we had to cut off" - and Pardew took great satisfaction when his Charlton side beat West Ham 4-0 two months later.

If his decision to field messrs Lovenkrands and Best rather than the now-signed-up Ranger was designed to illustrate the need to add firepower to his squad this month, then that may also have worked in his favour - the Dane's waning powers now more than evident.

As ever though it's a fine line where we are concerned and with another set of officials in charge here, the talismanic Barton could have been facing another spell on the sidelines and Tiote would have gone one step nearer his second ban of the season. These three points may turn out to be the most prized of all - actually, make that six, Scott Parker's motley lot must be beaten. 

Biffa