Exclusive – Pardew: Everyone at Newcastle loves Yohan Cabaye

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew has praised the elegance, on and off the field, of midfielder Yohan Cabaye.

The French international struck in the 81st minute of their match with Wigan, stylishly sweeping the ball home from just outside the penalty area to give the Magpies a 1-0 win.

And Pardew insists everyone at St James’ Park was delighted for the £4.8million summer signing who has made an incredible impact at the club in his short time on Tyneside.

“He’s a lovely person,” said Pardew. “A really elegant player and he is that off the pitch too as a person, so the whole place was overjoyed for him today, not short of the players and the staff because we’ve really taken to him.

“He’s got great technical ability and if you see the goal you know you’ve got to be a very, very good player to score that type of goal.”

Meanwhile, Pardew admitted the strength and depth of his squad this season is one of the reasons the Magpies are doing so well this year.

Sylvain Marveaux was one of those players who came off the bench for Newcastle and it was he who assisted Cabaye’s wonderful winner and his manager is delighted to have the ability to bring players of his quality on to change a match.

“We also had Peter Lovenkrands, Dan Gosling, Danny Guthrie and a few others that didn’t even make the bench today,” added Pardew.

“That’s the difference I’ve had this year, in terms of being able to change the game.

“It didn’t go our way today, we weren’t brilliant today, we were functional, good in some areas but in a lot of areas it was a game where it looked like we could get beaten but the bench changed it. We had that depth, a bit of resilience and it goes a long way.”