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London - Alan Pardew believes Newcastle United's first away win of the season will prove to be a springboard for the club.
Pardew's side followed up their first victory of the campaign at home to Leicester with a 2-1 win at Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday to record their first Premier League victory on the road since early March.
And after seeing his side move out of the bottom three thanks to goals from Sammy Ameobi and Ayoze Perez, the under-pressure manager believes the tide has turned in the north-east side's season.
Pardew's position has repeatedly been called into question during a dismal run this calendar year with some supporters organising demonstrations and campaigning for his dismissal.
But after Newcastle's win at White Hart Lane, Pardew said: "We find ourselves out of the relegation zone tonight and that is a massive relief for this football club, because the spotlight was very much on us and the pressure effects everybody, not just the players playing but our staff and everybody connected with the football club.
"In a way, that has been a great victory today.
"You've got to win games in the Premier League. Back end of last year we struggled and the start of this year, with our new players not quite settling, we struggled again.
"I have not hidden from that, and I have not hidden from the criticism. We still have a lot to do in this Premier League season. But today I am going to smile, and I am going to enjoy this victory because it's a big, big win for us."
Newcastle were trailing to Emmanuel Adebayor's 18th minute goal and reached half-time having been out-played.
Pardew revealed there had been some plain speaking during the break.
"There were a few strong words. We just said to them after, it's not nice as a manager to go in and bark out orders but sometimes it's necessary just to shake people up because we needed shaking up."
Pardew made a double substitution at the break and one of the replacements, Ameobi, equalised within six seconds of the restart.
Perez added a second 12 minutes later and Pardew admitted he was thrilled by the performance of the Spaniard who was called in at the last minute when Papiss Cisse pulled out with a knee injury.
"Papiss was due to play but his knee blew up two hours before kick-off as a reaction to yesterday's (Saturday's) training," Pardew explained.
"Ayoze came in and did really well. He is a really great individual talent. He hasn't quite got the strength and power that you associate with the Premier League but that will come to him."
Tottenham suffered a third home league defeat of the season and manager Mauricio Pochettino criticised his team's lack of concentration after the restart.
"The (first Newcastle) goal was a shock. It was a shock because after that it all changed in this moment," he said.
"Seven or six seconds before, all was happiness and there was good energy in the stadium," added the Argentinian, who joined north London club Spurs from Premier League rivals Southampton in pre-season.
"But in this moment, I think it was difficult to manage in our head. Our heads had gone and we started to take rash decisions on the pitch.
"It was difficult because 12 or 14 minutes later, we conceded again another goal. At 2-1, it was difficult. It's hard to explain why.
"I think it is better when you see the action in the changing room. It is difficult to explain with words.
"It is impossible to go to the pitch not ready to start to play. I think there was a lack of concentration from us.
"We need to work hard on our mentality because it is not tactical, physical - it is concentration and mentality and this is our challenge to improve."
