Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew demanded a significant improvement from striker Shola Ameobi before the 31 year old scored the winning penalty against Metalist Kharkiv in the Europa League last 32.

With one goal in his previous 14 games, Pardew delivered a rallying call to his senior striker ahead of the second leg in Ukraine.

And Ameobi produced in emphatic fashion, scoring the decisive penalty to send Newcastle through to the last 16, after Olexandr Goryainov fouled Moussa Sissoko in the second half.

Alan Pardew
Pardew believes Newcastle can go all the way.

"I had a little word with Shola before this game because I thought his contribution could have been greater in the last few weeks," Pardew said.

"Against this team, I always thought he might influence the game and he showed his quality.

"Hopefully that bodes well for the rest of this season because Shola can be a big player for us and we need him to be at his best."

Newcastle will face Russian side Anzhi in the round of 16 as the club look to end a 44 year trophy drought.

But with four points separating them from the bottom three, Newcastle are still embroiled in a relegation battle in the Premier League.

Pardew is however keen for Newcastle, who will welcome back Cheick Tiote and Hatem ben Arfa from injury, to make a genuine assault on winning the competition.

"I really feel as though we can give this competition a good go now," Pardew added. "We had some heroes out there tonight and this game has given us a good test ahead of the next round.

"It was a really good encounter over the two legs. We deserved to win the first game, and had a grip here in the first 60 minutes. We got the goal at a great time and did well to hold on for the victory.

"With the squad we have here now and the players we have coming back into contention, there is no reason why we can't give anyone a good game. We have Hatem Ben Arfa coming back and Cheick Tiote too after he was ill here, so we have options in several positions.

"What we have to try and do now is recover quickly ahead of the Southampton game in the Premier League on Sunday. That match is crucial to our hopes of pushing on and getting away from the bottom half of the table and we have to recover quickly."

Ukraine