Pardew praises debut hero

The Magpies' big-money January signing started Sunday's meeting with Aston Villa on the bench, but he was handed an early opportunity to shine following an injury to Leon Best.

Cisse's work rate impressed those in attendance at St James' Park and his spectacular second half winner handed Newcastle a hard-fought 2-1 success.

Pardew was full of praise for his latest acquisition at the final whistle, with the Magpies looking for Cisse and his Senegal international team-mate Demba Ba to terrorise Premier League defences and fire the club into top-four contention.

"We mustn't get carried from the team ethic we have got here because the guys did brilliantly to get a result at Blackburn in the week and again we have put in a display here that has been strong," Pardew told Sky Sports.

"Perch in midfield was brilliant. We had no Cheick (Tiote) today, no (Yohan) Cabaye, but we keep winning. That's a great thing.

"Having said that, you still need great players because they change games. Papiss did that today and Demba has done it for us before. It was a real bonus that he got a goal on his debut."

Asked for his take on the strike partnership he has been able to piece together, Pardew said: "Papiss has got that ability to turn with his first touch, and Demba's got that too. They can get at back fours as soon as the ball is played into them.

"They are a dangerous pair. We have got dangerous strikers all over the place here because Shola (Ameobi) and Besty have done well, (Peter) Lovenkrands is there as well and (Hatem) Ben Arfa, so we have got firepower. We just need to tighten up a little bit more."

Victory over Villa keeps Newcastle within touching distance of the UEFA Champions League places and Pardew was delighted to come through another tough test with maximum points.

He said: "It was a good win because Villa came here and looked lively. They looked lively first half.

"Although they scored just before half-time, they deserved to be level. They deserved to be in the lead at half-time. We accepted that and second half we knew we had to be better and more controlled, and we were. We limited their breakaways on us and we got a bit of pressure building.

"Of course we got a dream goal for us, because he's a new signing and he wanted to do well. It was a fantastic goal."