ALAN PARDEW is a stickler for the finer details of match tactics. Stoke City, one of the Premier League's most difficult opponents in front of their own fans, found that to their cost this week.

Newcastle United sit third in the top-flight and the reasons for such an impressive start stretch far beyond picking what he thinks to be his best starting line-up.

Shedding big dressing room characters in the summer was a collective decision that Newcastle made from within the boardroom.

But Pardew is the man responsible for ensuring there is an even stronger camaraderie within his squad of different nationalities - and the last ten league games have illustrated that with results and performances.

There is more to it than that, though. The Newcastle boss deserves to be applauded for the way he has successfully won the tactical battle in almost every game he has led this season.

Whether it was in the home draws with Arsenal and Tottenham or the away victories at Wolves, Sunderland and now Stoke, he has succeeded. Arguably the pick, despite the lack of local rivalry at stake, was the latter.

Pardew and his backroom team will have already spent much of the week looking at the key points which the club's match analysts have come up with ahead of this Saturday's visit of Everton.

He will know how Everton like to play. He will be working on ways to exploit the gaps he feels exist and how to stifle their biggest threats after studying video footage of their matches this season.

"We had a gameplan from minute one at Stoke, we stuck to it and it came off," admitted Danny Simpson, who impressed at right-back as part of a right-sided double act with Gabriel Obertan at the Britannia Stadium.

Most managers do the same nowadays, but it is how they implement the information to try to win Premier League matches that is crucial. Monday night's trip to Stoke was one of those days when it all came good.

Much of Stoke's home game is centred on getting balls in to the box. Whether it is from Rory Delap's long throw, direct corners or just feeding the wide-men as much as possible, that's what they are about.

That was why Pardew asked wingers Jonas Gutierrez and Obertan to spend much of the game helping out full-backs Simpson and Ryan Taylor, meaning Jermain Pennant and Matthew Etherington struggled to get a look in.

In hindsight it is pretty obvious. But Pardew still had to get his players to deliver - and he did.

But he already knows that examining the strengths and weaknesses of David Moyes' grand plan in three days for St James' Park is crucial if Newcastle's unbeaten start is to continue.

His players are responding in exactly the way he would like them to and they are reveling in the challenges that Pardew presents them with on a weekly basis.

Simpson said: "If you ask teams when they go to Stoke, maybe they would take a point. But when you look at the players we've got, and we knew our game plan, we knew if we stuck to that and coped with their main threat, which is the throw-ins and crosses, then we would have a chance.

"When we got the chance to play it on the floor and pass it, we knew we had the players to score goals and it worked to a tee."

Each match poses different tests for managers to overcome. Everton like to pack the midfield in the hope it eventually leads to a killer pass for lone striker Louis Saha to have a chance.

After the visit of the Toffees, whose boss knows all about Pardew's eye for detail, Newcastle will then face the free running styles of Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea.

It's all, though, about one step at a time. Simpson said: "Sometimes you need to slow the game down and play the game how the opposition play it, like at Stoke. I think it worked at Stoke and we move on.

"When you go to a place like Stoke, little things matter. You've got to be professional and use things to your advantage.

"You play the game then you set up for the next one. Credit to the team, and the staff for the game plan on Monday. We took everything on board and now it's all about the next one."

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Newcastle have revealed they have sold almost 4,000 extra season tickets since offering significantly reduced prices for the remaining Premier League games. The family enclosure, meanwhile, will now hold more than 7,500 supporters and has been expanded into block L7D of the Sir John Hall Stand West Corner.