Pardew delighted with Taylor

Ryan Taylor: Alan Pardew has been delighted with the right-back's displays on the left-hand side of defence

Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew has been delighted with Ryan Taylor's displays at left-back this season.

The former Wigan stopper, who normally operates on the right side of defence, has been filling in due to a variety of reasons.

First-choice left-back Jose Enrique joined Liverpool before the summer window shut while new signing Davide Santon suffered a knee injury.

Pardew accepts Taylor has been operating in an unfamiliar position and has been thrilled with how he has performed.

Something different

"It's not his natural side," Pardew told the Evening Chronicle.

"If you set your team up and you had the best right-back and the best left-back and the other team had the best right-winger and best left-winger you would cancel each other out. That would make sense.

"Actually having a right-footer there gives us something a little bit different. Maybe that helps us.

"I probably think (losing Enrique) has done us good. So far Ryan has done very well for us."