ALAN PARDEW admitted he was forced to deliver some home truths at half-time and remind his players to shake off the small-club approach and confront Tottenham on equal terms.

The Newcastle manager was left frustrated by his side’s woeful first half display and revealed harsh words were exchanged when the players returned to the dressing room trailing to an Emmanuel Adebayor header.

Pardew said: “There were a few strong words.

“It's not nice as a manager to go in and bark out orders but sometimes it's necessary just to shake people up because we needed shaking up.

“We needed to offer a threat. We're Newcastle United. We're not a small club. We're a big club and we were playing like a small club.

“We were giving too much possession to Tottenham, too much space. We never made a challenge. And we were fortunate to come in a 1-0.

“So I reminded them about the fundamentals of a Premier League game and we come out with a much stronger attitude.”

The Newcastle players appeared on the pitch before the start of the second half and went through a brief training drill.

Pardew admitted the routine had been introduced to sharpen up his side immediately after kick-off after being caught cold too often.

He said: “It’s the first time we have done that. The sports scientist is claiming the victory. He says it was that little warm-up that got us the win.

“We have struggled at the start of second halves, so we purposely thought we’d do a little bit of work before each, the start of the first half and the start of the second half.”

The manager admitted a first away win since March had delivered a massive relief, especially after coming on the back of the first league win of the season against Leicester last weekend.

He said: “The back end of last year we struggled and the start of this year, with our new players not quite settling, we struggled again. I have not hidden from that, and I have not hidden from the criticism.

“We still have a lot to do in this Premier League season. But today I am going to smile, and I am going to enjoy this victory because it’s a big, big win for us.”

And he added: “It’s important the team has a real strong belief in what they’re doing.

“But we find ourselves out of the relegation zone tonight and that is a massive relief for this football club, because the spotlight was very much on us and the pressure effects everybody, not just the players playing but our staff and everybody connected with the football club. In a way, that has been a great victory.”

Pardew also revealed Papiss Cisse was forced to withdraw two hours before kick-off when a knee problem flared up but he praised the contribution of stand-in Ayoze Perez.

Perez headed the match-winner and the manager said: "I'm so pleased for Ayo. It was a tough afternoon to come in at the last minute. He didn't know he was playing.

"We thought Papiss would be fit today. He really only got the nod at whatever time we kicked off.

“He is a really great individual talent. He hasn’t quite got the strength and power that you associate with the Premier League but that will come to him.

“He goes to Spain tonight to an awards ceremony and hopefully he might pick up an award or two there. We are so pleased with him today.”