Newcastle kicked off their pre-season campaign with a 4-2 win over Motherwell at Fir Park last night.
Haris Vuckic, Yoan Gouffran, Moussa Sissoko and Sylvain Marveaux were on the scoresheet for Pardew’s side.
The Toon boss has said many times that the Scottish Premier League "is a joke!", and with Motherwell heading into Europe ... Pardew's youngsters showed them they won't last "five minutes" in the Europa League.
Alan Pardew: “I said to the players before the last game of the season that this pre-season would be the toughest I would ever put on.
“I think it showed how tough it has been by the 11 starters last night.
“They looked fit and sharp. At times, we really did open Motherwell up.
“I’ve always set my teams up to play.
“But when you are under the pressure we were last year you can look staid.
“We were just getting through games last year, like the QPR game, we just got through it.
“But you could see it was like Benfica, the shackles were off a bit, and there was no pressure.
“The players responded with what I want to see, which is good football and getting between the lines.
“I think the one thing that was reflected in the performance was that the shackles were off a bit.
“The pressure we were under last season wasn’t there. It was the same for our fans.
“It was great to see them and be able to say ‘hello’ in a more relaxed manner than we ended up with last year.
“On top of that, we had a really good performance.”
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PRE-SEASON FRIENDLIES:
Rio Ave (A) July 20
Pacos Ferreira (A) July 23
Blackpool (A) July 29
St Mirren (A) July 31
Braga (H) August 10
MOTHERWELL 2 NEWCASTLE 4 (Vuckic, Gouffran, Sissoko, Marveaux)
Elliot; Tavernier, Williamson (S Taylor, 46), Yanga-Mbiwa (Streete, 82), Dummett; Sissoko (Abeid, 68), Anita (Amalfitano, 82); Obertan (Ferguson, 74), Vuckic (Marveaux, 46), Sammy Ameobi (Richardson, 82), Gouffran (Campbell, 58).
Sub not used: Alnwick.