ALAN Pardew was fortunate to keep his job after his clash with Hull's David Meyler, according to Mark Jensen, editor of online fanzine, www.themag.co.uk.

Pardew has been fined £100,000 by his club and faces the prospect of a Football Association charge, but it is understood that he will not be sacked by club owner Mike Ashley.

Jensen said: "If Pardew did go, it's hard to see who would want to work under the current constraints that the manager seems to have at Newcastle.

"In an ideal world, you would like the club to be in a position where it was strong enough to deal with something this big by sacking the manager if they felt that was appropriate.

"But the players do seem to play for him so I suppose from a practical point of view, I wouldn't be in favour of getting rid of Pardew.

"But when you look at it, he is probably very lucky to have kept his job."

The incident, in which Pardew appeared to thrust his head towards Meyler on the touchline during Saturday's 4-1 Barclays Premier League victory at the KC Stadium, attracted further unflattering publicity for a club which has endured a turbulent few months.

Jensen said: "Certainly in the major leagues in Europe, it's hard to think of any instances where something similar has happened.

"Pardew does seem to stand on the touchline for virtually the whole match.

"Some people say he loves being the centre of attention. I don't know if that's it or whether he just wants to have the best view of the game.

"But whatever it is, you look to the manager to lead by example and when you have fans running on the pitch, like one did during the Sunderland game and he ends up in court and fined, it does leave the club open to criticism.

"For me, the saddest thing is Newcastle played better than they have for about two months, but naturally all anybody wants to talk about is that incident."