da brdice：
da betcris： Newcastle manager Alan Pardew has praised Demba Ba, and stated that he feels the African striker is worthy of the side’s legendary No9 jersey.
The sprightly attacker has filled the void left by Andy Carroll and scored some important goals for the Tyneside outfit this season.
Pardew was full of kind words for Ba, and hopes the forward’s hot goalscoring streak continues.
“If I knew he’d perform to that level he would have got the number nine shirt,” he told Mirror Football.
“I think Demba Ba’s all-round ability in terms of goals and everything he has given us has been a real big bonus this year.
“On Saturday [in the 0-0 draw with Swansea] a couple of things he did were exceptional, even though we didn’t score. We have a real talent there and we will miss him for the African Cup of Nations in mid January,” he admitted.
Despite Newcastle’s form dipping recently Pardew feels it has been an excellent 2011, and hopes that his side can push on next year.
“It’s been a fantastic year. It’s more than I could have hoped for in terms of where we are. You know people will look at our recent run and they don’t actually look at the bigger picture.
“We’re in a fantastic position in the league, we’re still got some good games coming up and it’s all there for us. We’re just rolling on. We’re ahead of where we thought we’d be, for sure.
“We didn’t think we’d be in this position. When you’re lying second in the league like we were, with the budget we’ve got, to try and stay there is totally unrealistic, but that doesn’t mean we can’t keep trying to aim for those heights.
“We want to keep up there in sixth or seventh. We’ve had some bad fortune with injuries, because when we played against the best teams we didn’t have our best team,” he concluded.
By Gareth McKnight
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