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The clock ticked towards the 94th minute. On the side of the pitch, the pair bounced around with joy desperate to hear the full-time whistle. There they were together, two key players dressed in the black and white of Newcastle, no training top on, smiling and gesticulating almost as much as the man in the suit next to them. For anyone whod not seen Newcastle for a while, watching Hatem Ben Arfa and Papiss Cisse in this manner, deep into injury time of a game, theyd be perfectly right to presume the pair had left the match and were simply close to the bench having already done their hard work and been substituted. The clock ticked towards the 95th minute. Cisses number nine then went up and on the striker ran. Eighteen seconds later, the final whistle was blown and Newcastle had won another game. The mercurial Ben Arfa hadnt gotten across the white line while Cisse was nothing more than a time-wasting tool. The man in the suit raised his arms, saluted the home fans and walked back down the tunnel. This was no one elses Newcastle United but Alan Pardew. The win over West Brom meant the manager had guided his team to a fourth straight victory in the Premier League, becoming just the second team to do so after Arsenal. It had been a remarkable turnaround. Exactly two months earlier, Pardew was in the away dressing room at Goodison Park on a wet Monday night facing a real crossroads as manager of Newcastle United. He had watched his team get thumped 3-0 in the first half and defensively, they were a shambles. In the first five and a half matches of the Premier League season, they had scored five goals and conceded 11. The game was lost and seven points from six games meant his team were heading down the path of last season, rather than the season previous. Pardew, desperate to find a way of seeing his team play like the one that finished fifth in 2011-12, knew he had to do something different. Bringing on a not-so fully fit Yohan Cabaye was the easy decision. Removing Ben Arfa was not. Cisse, who had started each of the first five games, had already tested the managers patience and started the game on the bench for the first time. Without Cisse and Ben Arfa, and inspired by Cabaye, Newcastle started the second half at Everton in fine form and would go on to lose the game, 3-2. (photo: fourfourtwo.com - Click For Larger Image) "We have let the fans down but have gained a tiny bit of respect back for our performance in the second half," said Pardew that night. In training the week following the loss, Pardew drew a line on their campaign and asked his team to start their season again. Dating back to the start of last season, they had gained just 48 points from 44 matches. In the summer between the years, his team had been ridiculed by the national media following the hire of director of football, Joe Kinnear, who embarrassed himself and the club in a radio interview where he mispronounced the names of some of the Newcastle players. It was reported by many that Kinnears hire, by owner Mike Ashley, added pressure on Pardew, who, despite having been given a staggering eight-year contract extension in September of 2012, had lost one of his supporters at the club when Kinnear replaced managing director Derek Llambias. If Pardews detractors needed an excuse to push him out of the door, the way the team under-performed for the majority of the first six matches handed them the card they needed. Chief scout Graham Carr had helped Pardew assemble a good, if not great, Premier League squad by signing many French players, available in the transfer market for a very reasonable price compared to the cost of home-grown English players. Last season, they struggled badly with Europa League demands testing their squad beyond its limits and had used 32 players in 38 Premier League games on the way to finishing a miserable 16th place on 41 points. This season, there was no excuse. Pardew, with his contract running up until 2020, was running out of time. It was the biggest test of his managerial skills. He responded by making big calls tactically and with personnel. Moussa Sissoko and Yoan Gouffran were asked to play wide, where they can provide attacking prowess and work hard on the flanks defensively, in a four-band tactical system that flipped between 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1. There was no room for the part-time genius Ben Arfa. Cisse was also sat down and Loic Remy was given the number one striker role and would keep it, even when he went through a long stretch without a goal. Pushing aside two big personalities was a big call for Pardew to make but he knew he no longer could carry two passengers in the hope they might do something. With the pair on the bench, success followed for Newcastle. A win at Cardiff, a draw against Liverpool and a narrow loss to rivals Sunderland represented an improvement in October and then in November, the Magpies beat Chelsea, Tottenham, Norwich and West Brom. Twelve points from a possible 12 in October and, in total, 16 points from a possible 21 since the loss at Everton. "Since the second half at Everton, we looked at ourselves and said come on, this aint us, we had some difficulties last year, injuries, Europa League, but we are together this year, we are ready, lets not make the errors we are making. We won the second half at Everton and since weve been really strong," reflected Pardew after the win against West Brom. (photo: fourfourtwo.com - Click For Larger Image) The three points had come from a side that had a genuine belief that they would win. When Chris Brunt leveled the game at 1-1 eight minutes after the break, the visitors went on to have their best period of the match. Yet, during this period, Newcastle scored the games final goal. They had found a way to succeed when things were going against them. A magnificent November has been followed up by an excellent December that featured three more wins, including one at Old Trafford, and a positive performance against Arsenal on Sunday, despite a narrow 1-0 loss. "Weve come out if it with our confidence renewed, even though weve lost," said a smiling Pardew. The 52-year-old knew it was time to think about the bigger picture. Exactly a year ago, the Magpies were exposed against Arsenal and been battered 7-3. This time, they were a much more organized unit, playing with a 4-3-3 shape that won at Manchester United and will prove to be difficult to break down for all of the top teams in the division. (photo: fourfourtwo.com - Click For Larger Image) A shape that once again left Cisse and Ben Arfa on the bench. For the first five-and-a-half games this season, the pair had combined to play 815 minutes of Premier League football (82 per cent). In the 13-and-a-half games since, they have combined for just 621 minutes, a dramatic drop off to just 25.5 per cent. Without them, Newcastle is a different team and Pardew is a different manager. He is far more relaxed in interviews than he once was, allowing his personality and his intelligent football brain to shine through. Three months ago, his job at the club, and subsequently his reputation as a manager at a big club, was hanging by a thread. Now the second longest tenured manager in the Premier League looks as comfortable in the job as he ever did. With enormous shadows in Kinnear and Ashley hanging over him, no one deserves the credit more for that than himself. Whether or not he stays until 2020, as the contract suggests, remains a real question mark in the turbulent position of a football manager but as one of just four English managers in the Premier League, Pardews turnaround in success at Newcastle is sure to have turned some heads at the FA. The way he is going, it is no longer laughable to suggest Pardew could be England manager come 2020. Whether or not hell have the talent like Cisse and Ben Arfa to put on that bench is a different story altogether. 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Kendall Graveman Jersey . -- For one night, Nick Calathes provided a big reason to believe the Memphis Grizzlies might be able to withstand the loss of Mike Conley on a short-term basis.WINNIPEG - The motto for Montreal these days is Strength in Numbers. The only problem is the Alouettes are losing parts and losing games as a result. Tonight, the Als see how well they can hold up as they hit the road to take on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at Investors Group Field. You can watch the pre-game show live on TSN and TSN GO. You can then listen in on live game coverage on TSN Radio 690. Montreal knew 2014 would be a trying season, what with the retirement of quarterback Anthony Calvillo, but few thought the team would hit the skids so violently. The Als were hoping to get some positive returns from Troy Smith, a former Heisman Trophy winner while at Ohio State, but he has not panned out. In fact, he is now on the six-game injured list, which makes Alex Brink the quarterback of record. Last week, the Als suffered their fifth straight loss and the sixth setback in seven tries on the season, bowing at Saskatchewan in a 16-11 final. Brink was serviceable as he converted 19-of-31 passes for 187 yards, was intercepted once and sacked three times. The signal caller also ran for a team-best 32 yards on three carries, which might not be the best idea these days given the state of quarterback play in Montreal. The lone highlight for the Alouettes came in the fourth quarter when Duron Carter secured a missed field goal and returned it 123 yards to the end zone, accounting for the only major of the game for Montreal and drawing the team into a tie with the Roughriders for the time being. The active roster for the Alouettes now includes quarterbacks Tanner Marsh and Jonathan Crompton, along with Brink. Not surprisingly, the Montreal passing attack ranks dead last in the CFL still, showing an awful efficiency rating of 59.0, stemming from a mere 47.9 percent completion rate and four touchdowns against six interceptions in seven games. As for Brink, who previously played three seasons with the Blue Bombers, he is a career 56.1 percent passer and has more picks (15) than touchdowns (13) at the moment. The Alouettes may be on a five-game losing skid, but quarterback Drew Willy isnt viewing Fridays game as a slam dunk for the Blue Bombers. Winnipeg (5-3) has had troubles of its own lately, losing two straight heading into the home game against Montreal (1-6). And as much as the Alouettes are struggling, some of their losses have been in close games against good teams. "We saw even last week, they played Saskatchewan very tough, to the wire there," Willy said Thursday of Montreals 16-11 loss to the Roughriders. "Theyre not far off from winning games so we need to take them very seriously and thats what we have been doing." In their first game against each other in Montreal, Winnipeg rallied for a 34-33 come-from-behind win, one of three late-game victories the Bombers have pulled out this season. But Winnipegs last two losses exposed some weaknesses in a team that surprrisingly jumped out to a 5-1 start.dddddddddddd Toronto threw four touchdown passes and racked up 174 rushing yards in a 38-21 home victory on Aug. 12 that included plenty of missed tackles by Bomber defenders. Winnipegs last home game on Aug. 7 was a 23-17 loss to Saskatchewan, featuring six Bomber turnovers the Roughriders used to score 20 points in front of the first sellout crowd of the season. "We had this long week to focus on technique, basically getting the things weve done wrong over the last few games back to the right way," Winnipeg defensive tackle Bryant Turner said. In all three of Winnipegs losses this season, they failed to stop the oppositions ground game. While Toronto rushed for 174 yards, Saskatchewan racked up 186 yards and Edmonton tallied 192 in its 26-3 victory against Winnipeg on July 17. Montreal running back Brandon Whitaker isnt a big, bruising back, but hes been eating up the yards and sits third in the CFL in rushing yards with 406 yards on 87 carries. Winnipegs Nic Grigsby is first after rushing 97 times for 416 yards. "(Whitaker is) a good back and I think theyre going to use him, especially with a new quarterback in there," Bombers middle linebacker Ian Wild said. Former Bomber pivot Alex Brink is making his second straight start for the Als in place of injured Troy Smith. Brink played for Winnipeg from 2010-12 and went 3-4. Winnipeg head coach Mike OShea said his team wont take Brink lightly. "With a young quarterback whos maybe not been handed the job, hes going to try and make plays, not only with his arm, but with his feet," OShea said. "So you have to look at the fact that hes probably going to try to pull the ball and run if he has to." OShea expects running will be in Montreals game package. "If you look at what our defence has given up in the last couple games, then obviously part of their game plan will be to run the ball on us," he said. "Thats not rocket science." The Alouettes have averaged 21.3 points per game at home this season and only 8.0 on the road. Bomber cornerback Chris Randle said the defence wont back down on attacking the Als. "We need to attack in certain angles, more cohesive as a unit," Randle said. "Thats what we worked on all week long. We want to have it where everyones flying to the ball - organized chaos is what we call it." Winnipegs defensive front seven will be without two key players. Defensive end Jason Vega is out with turf toe and will be replaced by Kashawn Fraser. Linebacker Ejiro Kuale is sidelined with a back problem and Abe Kromah will take his spot. Notes: Bomber receiver Nick Moore is back on the roster after missing three games with a foot injury. Romby Bryant comes off to make room à Montreals Mike Edem is expected to make his first start of the season at safety in place of injured Marc-Olivier Brouillette. Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Jerseys From China Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys ' ' '