Newcastle deserved lucky break against West Brom claims Alan Pardew

Demba Ba of Newcastle United celebrates his goal (Getty Images)

Newcastle boss Alan Pardew insisted his side deserved their lucky break after Papiss Cisse's heavily deflected injury-time winner gave the Magpies three highly fortunate points against West Brom.

Despite going ahead in the 35th minute through Demba Ba's seventh goal in nine games in the 35th minute, the Magpies struggled for long periods after the excellent Romelu Lukaku equalised.

The home side snatched victory in dramatic fashion deep into added time when substitute Sammy Ameobi let fly with a speculative shot from outside the box which struck Cisse's back and diverted past a helpless Ben Foster.

Pardew said: "We've won the game and we'll take that. We've not had many breaks this season. We perhaps deserved to win at Sunderland, and today we've got a goal in a game we did not deserve to win but we have.

"We've had a tough week and we looked tired physically and emotionally today. We've got to look at how we approach Sunday games after the Thursdays, because we are struggling. The second half was a struggle."

Ba had flashed the opening chance wide in the 14th minute but the visitors should have gone ahead in the 26th minute when Lukaku was put clean through by Graham Dorrans but saw his shot superbly blocked by the advancing Tim Krul.

Ba headed the opener when he took advantage of a mistake by Gareth McAuley to nip on the end of a through-ball by Shola Ameobi, but Lukaku should have equalised before the break when he was put through again and once again denied by Krul.

Lukaku got the goal his performance deserved in the 55th minute when he headed home from a Zoltan Gera cross, and the Baggies pressed for a winner with substitute Markus Rosenborg causing problems.

Cisse's fortunate winner stunned Baggies boss Steve Clarke, all the more so because it came hot on the heels of his side's unfortunate late loss to Manchester City at The Hawthorns last weekend.

Clarke said: "I thought we were terrific and it's disappointing when you come to a place like this and you're the best team and not only do you not get a point but you don't come away with anything.

"We've got a good squad of players and I think our performances have been really good. With a little bit of luck over the last couple of games we could have even more points, but we've been stuck on 14 which is cruel and not fair."

PA