Revitalised Cisse will steel Magpies, says Pardew

Newcastle boss Alan Pardew is hoping a rejuvenated Papiss Cisse can continue a rich vein of form to fire Newcastle out of their dismal run.

The 29-year-old Senegal international returned from a fractured kneecap as a substitute on September 20 with the Magpies trailing 2-0 to Hull at an increasingly volatile St James’ Park.

However, the double he claimed inside the final 16 minutes of the game secured a point. He repeated the feat at Swansea last time out to add another when defeat would have ramped up the pressure on his manager.

An in-form Cisse is a major boon for Pardew as he attempts to end the club’s wait for a first Premier League win of the season at the eighth attempt today and avoid the club’s worst ever start to a Premier League campaign.

The 53-year-old said: “When goalscorers get their tails up, they have an unbelievable knack of finding a goal.

“The first goal at Swansea, I don’t think there is anyone else on our staff who could have scored that goal, and that is what I mean by finding a technique that gets you a goal.

“He does that on the training ground on a more regular basis when he is in form.”

Cisse’s return to both fitness and form could hardly have been more timely, with the Magpies having won just five of 26 league games played in 2014, the last against relegated Cardiff in May.

That run started with a 1-0 defeat at West Brom on New Year’s Day, six days after a 5-1 demolition of nine-man Stoke during which Cisse was handed the chance to take a late penalty and score his first league goal of the season.

Pardew said: “He is injury-free for the first time for a long time because at the back end of last year, he was carrying knocks and injuries, and fatigue a little bit.

“He is more enthused this year than I have seen him for a long time, and that’s being reflected in his goals.”

Pardew remains a man under pressure, a fact Leicester manager Nigel Pearson, his opposite number today, is keenly aware of.

Pearson knows all too well the demands of the Magpies as he spent 16 months on Tyneside and worked under three different managers. During his short tenure that started in October 2006, which included spells as assistant manager, first-team coach and two week-long runs as caretaker boss, Pearson saw Glenn Roeder and Sam Allardyce sacked.

Pearson then spent a week working under Kevin Keegan prior to his own release in early February 2008 and joining Southampton.

“I’ve still a lot of very good memories from my time there, although being caretaker was not a good experience because I was replacing someone I had worked with,” recalled Pearson.

“I’ve had times here (at Leicester) when it has not been easy for either myself, the staff or players, so I understand what it is like to work under those sorts of pressures. When it becomes personal, it’s never nice.”