Alan Pardew: “It’s a passionate place.
“Whether it is something negative like ‘sign a striker Pardew’ or whatever, like that great comeback result against Arsenal, whatever – you just sense the passion, and you have got to love that.
“I have been at clubs who don’t have that. They just don’t have it. It’s an ingredient you try to install in your team, but you get it from the terraces at times. Here it is generated by our city. Wherever the players go they will be reminded of this city.
“I went out on Saturday night – it was Steve Stone’s 40th birthday and he owed me a drink! This win is brilliant for me and my staff. We are quite close knit. John Carver thinks he has done about 12 of these games and he was like a little boy.
“I didn’t even understand what he was saying some of the time. He was just so emotionally involved. Micky (Holland) our masseur, he has worked at Sunderland and has Newcastle tattoos everywhere – those people, I understand it more from them than anyone else.
“You wonder if the spirit will still be there. Sometimes you need results to reinforce that spirit.
“We have good pros like Smith and Harper with us today. Alan Smith was not in the squad but he wanted to travel. He wanted to be part of it. That just sums up what you need at the club.
“I have to respect those guys and make sure I look after them, even if they are not in the team. Me and my staff try to do that. It is about having players like Cabaye, a new player, who has the spirit to win, it will come out and serve us in some form and it did.
“Sometimes it is all about managers and big names in the team, but Ryan deserves the headlines and we always knew he would be taking the free-kick.”