Alan Pardew said:

"We've got a really good work ethic. Now we need three or four players who are renowned for getting the fans off their seats. There are no real stars in this team. They have a collective team bond. It is a good trait to have. Now we want to have a winning mentality and take that away from home. Overall I am absolutely delighted with 44 points. We are in the top 10 and we can dream of a top 10 finish.

"I’m very pleased because it’s been a difficult week at the training ground. We were all disappointed about Liverpool and we were frustrated and we lost our focus a little bit in training.

"I thought with Steven Taylor, we’ve worked very hard with him and Tim (Krul), who have both been on the sidelines. Both have come into the team and have done extremely well. Today I thought he (Taylor) was excellent.

"When he first broke into the (team) he was being mooted as the next Tony Adams. It was about his aggression, his passing and his quality, he showed all that today. I thought he was outstanding. The goal was a case in point because he really attacked it and he deserved his goal. I wasn’t particularly pleased with his celebration, going off on his own but it was a great goal.

On his Tiote dilemma:

"I am going to have to give that some real thought over Chelsea and West Brom, I really am. He would miss three games at the beginning of next season and he is very important to the team.

"He was so unlucky. He was so controlled, he was great, and that booking, you could see what it meant to him. He knew he was on the edge of a cliff. His tackling is usually well-timed, but he is aggressive and he just needs to tone that down a bit.

"I have to look at Manchester United and Chelsea and our result at Chelsea could be critical. I have to do what is right for football and play my best team so I have a really tough call.

'I have a commitment, not just to this club, to field my strongest team so it will me an emotional pull for me and the club. We will have to sit down and talk it through

"The abuse he received was difficult to stomach after everything Andy brought to our club, and I only hope he didn't pay too much attention to the taunts being directed at him from the stands. To go from hero to villain simply for moving clubs, which is just part and parcel of football, is beyond me.

"As we all know, Andy came up through the Academy and played a pivotal role for this football club whilst he was here. His goals, coupled with his attitude and his popularity in the dressing room, were integral to everything we achieved last season in gaining promotion back to the Premier League, and it was fitting that he ended the campaign as our top scorer.

"Andy is a Geordie lad and a lifelong Newcastle United supporter. He worked his socks off for this football club over the years, eventually reaching the ultimate goal in landing the much-coveted No.9 shirt.

"The 11 goals he scored for us this season have helped stabilise the club in the Premier League. Andy should be applauded for the great things he helped us achieve at Newcastle.

"I speak for everyone at the club when I say he will always be welcomed back at St James' Park with open arms. Andy has moved on now, amicably, to pastures new. The club received a British record transfer fee for Andy, which was the eighth highest in history.

"We wish him well and I am sure he will go on to fulfil his great potential with the England team over the coming years."

Big Eck grunted:

"It wasn’t a lack of discipline (for Ridgewell's dismissal): Liam made a natural reaction by trying to keep the ball out of the net, with Kevin Nolan ready to pounce. He’s leaned with his arm so it was a penalty. It was a human, instinctive thing by Liam.

"The ball wasn’t actually going in, it was going across the face of the goal. Nolan still would have had to finish it. So whether it was denying a goalscoring opportunity, I’m not sure. When players are running through on goal, that’s a sending-off; it’s whether it’s the same rule. The referee had to make that split-second decision – and a lot of the big decisions seemed to go against us.

“The player who scored the second goal shouldn’t even have been on the pitch. He elbowed Cameron Jerome, he led with his elbow. It’s not the sort of challenge we want to see.

"I have got a nose that would frighten you from way back in the dinosaur era. Look at the stitches I’ve got too. That type of thing is outlawed now. You can’t try and elbow players in the face. Cameron was lucky he didn’t suffer a fracture. Unfortunately the referee never saw it. So that was a bit of an injustice.”

“It’s hard work, but the players dug in again. They were valiant right to the very end. We had one or two opportunities, but it wasn’t to be."

Although not on a par with the "must win" fixtures of two seasons ago, just a pair of victories from our previous fourteen games made success against Birmingham City more than welcome, supplying mathematical confirmation of our top-flight status with two games to spare.

Thankfully for United, the Carling Cup winners proved to be no more of an obstacle than they had three months earlier on their own ground, and for the second successive game managed to leave themselves a man short before half time.

Looking past the scoreline though, this was a deflating afternoon for home fans who saw their side grab what looked like a decisive advantage before sloppily conceding just on half time. Ben Foster had already denied Joey Barton and Peter Lovenkrands before United went ahead and the visiting 'keeper did well to tip over a thunderous effort from Kevin Nolan, who latched on to a wayward Tiote shot. 

From the resultant corner however, Foster was beaten again before his long punt provided an assist for Lee Bowyer to mark his return to Gallowgate by reducing the arrears. Rather than finishing the job off after the restart against the ten men of City though, United proved unable to take advantage of the wide open spaces afforded to them and were grateful in the end that their opponents were similarly wayward.  

The Magpies did fashion the occasional chance - notably when Roger Johnson cleared off his own line to deny Ameobi - but for long periods of the second half knocked the ball around in a fairly clueless and unthreatening fashion that seemed destined to be punished with an equaliser.

While alleged Toon target Sebastian Larsson did little to enhance his reputation (save for hoofing wildly over the bar when Krul dropped the ball at his feet), old boy Stephen Carr handled Jonas Gutierrez with depressing ease. And with Jose Enrique opting not to indulge in any of his trademark forward runs today, much of our attacking came down the right, where Danny Simpson was afforded plenty of space but provided little in the way of quality.   

Alan Pardew may have been pleased that his side saw the game out and didn't succumb to a late equaliser in the manner of the Spurs game here in January, but it didn't do much for the game as a spectacle. There is a middle ground between brainless gung-ho attacking and stonewalling, but despite the numerical advantage we seldom seemed to pitch things right. 

With depressing inevitability, Cheick Tiote managed to get his 14th booking of the season for a needless trip late in the game and now stands one yellow card away from a three game ban, which would spill over into next season. Taking him out of the midfield for the meaningless visit to Chelsea on Sunday now seems like a no-brainer - even if that does place us at greater risk of a thorough humping on the Kings Road, with an ever increasing list of unavailable players (Mike Williamson's broken arm suffered in training this week saw him join messrs Guthrie and Perch in the treatment room, while Ben Arfa and Gosling have both suffered "setbacks" and Stephen Ireland has limped back to Villa).

At least that game is now of less importance at the other end of the table, following Manchester United's win over Chelsea at Old Trafford on Sunday. Anything other than a defeat at Blackburn on Saturday will confirm the title for Fergie's side and leave Carlo Ancelloti making his expected Stamford Bridge farewells.

For Newcastle though Alan Pardew can plan for his first full season in charge by reshaping the squad to his own specifications, although his post-match comments here about trying to get funds from the owner caused some raised eyebrows - surely he's already won that battle?

Similarly the criticism in the match programme by Derek Llambias of the abuse dished out to Andy Carroll at Anfield was both needless and ill-timed. Supporters who have shown astonishing patience and resilience can sing and shout what they like - and if the ground authorities decree that it's offensive, then they'll use their powers accordingly. The thought police aren't on patrol. Yet.

He should be grateful that the players have done enough to suppress the jibes directed at his boss, despite the deliberate ploy of weakening their resources in mid-season by selling their top scorer. It's certainly difficult to think of anyone less qualified to spout about showing a lack of respect, given the scruffy, seedy image that we now display to the rest of the footballing world.

One thing though - can Del boy's lack of comment about the barracking of Michael Owen at the last home game be taken as a sign that he approved of that? Or is it just Geordies we can't boo? 

Rather than seeking to rake over the ashes of the Carroll departure, the club should be directing its collective energies into investing the proceeds (and more) of that deal in order to bring badly-needed reinforcements to the club. Had the 3,000 away fans at Anfield had a solitary positive thing to cheer in return for their early start and £42 outlay, then our former number nine wouldn't have had as much abuse.   

Biffa