There's a reason we're constantly being told that hard-work is top of the bill at Newcastle's Benton training ground these days: players, coaches and managers perpetually fall back on the evidence of graft to prove that everyone has the fight in them to fire the club away from the relegation zone. That is inevitable, but it's also an indication of the foundation that Pardew has built at Newcastle. The manager wants 11 Jack Colbacks, or 11 Shola Ameobis (a player he wrongly thought was a hard-worker), or 11 Yoan Gouffrans: all of whom will run and run and run for the cause, and sweat blood to try and get something to happen. Unfortunately, when faced with a brick wall, the answer isn't just to run through it, you have to have the insight and the creative thinking to navigate it somehow, which is why the alienation of creative players like Ben Arfa, Marveaux and to an extent Cabella because they don't have the work-rate is so frustrating. Yes, they probably aren't going to run through brick-walls, but they do have the ability to unlock doors in those walls that industrious players don't always see. And that is precisely why putting Cabella and Ameobi the younger on for the second half was so key to Newcastle winning.
