ALAN PARDEW thinks his players proved just how much they want to succeed at Newcastle United by coming back from two goals down to claim a point against Hull City.

Pardew was happy to see Papiss Cisse come from the bench to score two goals in the final 17 minutes to cancel out the Tigers’ lead given to them courtesy of Nikica Jelavic and Mohammed Diame’s brilliant double earlier in the second half.

Many Newcastle fans hurled abuse at the club’s under-fire boss, demanding for his sacking, while other supporters tried to drive the team on in a bid to lift them off the foot of the Premier League table just seven days after the 4-0 defeat at Southampton.

Pardew said: “We set ourselves up for criticism at Southampton. There are two things: either don’t handle it and don’t play for this football club, or handle it. We came through it here.

“I have to say thank you to them for that. A big section took a neutral position. I don’t expect them to support me, but they took the view of loving their football club. I think we did enough on the pitch to win a few friends.”

There are still a large number of fans keen to have Pardew replaced, but the pressure on his shoulders was eased slightly courtesy of Cisse’s double.

And it was revealed afterwards that Cisse should not even have been on the bench to come on and save the day.

Pardew said: “Cisse shouldn’t have played. Our medical staff didn’t agree he should be included. He trained for five days, but our eyes tell when a player is fresh, bright.

“He is not ready for 90 minutes but he knows how to carry the jersey. Manu Riviere has had to carry that shirt and he’s not ready yet. That’s why I felt sorry for him.

“That No 9 shirt is heavy and it’s great that he’s seen the example of Papiss. Manu will learn from that and there is now an opportunity to rest him and for him to understand what it means to play at a big club like this.”