ALAN Pardew has described the organised campaign to have him removed from the Newcastle United hot seat as the most difficult time of his reign on Tyneside.

The Magpies boss also admitted to being hurt by the sackpardew.com website and the jibes he received when his team were struggling at the bottom of the Premier League.

No win from the first seven games of the season – including a humiliating 4-0 defeat at Southampton - piled the pressure on Pardew and it led to a protest from sections of supporters during the home draw with Hull City.

Several banners calling for the 53-year-old to be sacked were displayed around St James’ Park, while thousands of posters showing a ‘sack pardew’ logo were distributed around the city.

Many of those posters popped up in the away sections at Stoke and Swansea, but owner Mike Ashley ignored calls and such protests have since disappeared after a run of five straight wins.

Those behind sackpardew.com have pledged to continue their campaign, but the Magpies boss, who will celebrate four years in charge on Tyneside next month, hopes the worst is behind him.

“I have never been into the website,” Pardew said in an interview with the Evening Standard. “When the website started somebody said to me it was quite an organised website. It wasn’t like a nine-year-old on the computer sort of saying, ‘I don’t like Pardew’. It was much more serious than that.

“You just have to stay with your philosophy, believe what you do is right.

“It’s certainly been the most difficult time for me in Newcastle. The back end of last season spilled over into this season when we sold Yohan Cabaye and did not have a replacement.

“We were a bit unlucky at the start. Against Aston Villa and Crystal Palace, we should have won but we lost. It looked to our fans that we were in reverse.

“So it was tough. Some of the personal jibes were hurtful. You can’t disguise that. But you have to be resilient, particularly as a Premier League manager. You have to ride the storms.

“I’ve had a few setbacks in my career and not just in Newcastle. In the Championship at West Ham, we really had some tough days.

“Against Millwall, I lost 4-0. Can you imagine the West Ham manager losing 4-0 to Millwall and surviving?

“That steeled me for what’s happened in Newcastle. Your credibility, your respect everything goes out of the window. You have to fight to get it back.

“I’m quite good at getting over games. I try not to put the pressure which is on me on to the players, my staff and certainly not my family. You have to be quite single-minded and focused in what you are doing.”

Pardew has had his fair share of dark days while in the St James’ Park hot seat. In April he was handed a seven-game ban and fined a total of £160,000 for head-butting David Meyler during the 4-1 win at Hull City.

The former West Ham boss pledged to clean up his touchline act after a string of misdemeanours and revealed he has sought help from a mentor.

He said: “I never really hit him but it’s important when you do something wrong that you don’t hide.

“You admit that you’ve done something wrong and you have to correct it. I’ve worked with a mentor, somebody who’s helped me focus my winning mentality.

“My capacity to want to win has overspilt in a couple of incidents and I’ve had to channel that in a better way. That winning mentality will never leave me.

“But I need to get it across on to the pitch in different ways, in a more intelligent way, in my preparation, in my concentration at half-time and full-time.”

Pardew also confirmed he will be without Fabricio Coloccini for three games.

The defender suffered a calf injury in the win at West Brom and will be missing for the games against Queens Park Rangers, West Ham and Burnley.

“He’s a terrific presence on the pitch, not only a leader of men but he has a great way of leading. He never looks ruffled and gives that assurance to the team,” Pardew said.

“In a pride of lions, he is the lion sitting on the hill looking over his brood, so losing him is going to be a blow.”