Alan Pardew: “I could name any of my players and they were all Geordie heroes. They really were.
“Forget about the result, the performance that we put in was outstanding.
“The first half especially I thought we were the better side.
“They were heroes at the end, especially when you get a man sent off, you’ve all got to pitch in – which we’ve been doing all year.
“What you have got to do as a team and a squad is just roll on to the next game and set it up.
“We have done that, we have set up Chelsea. Had we been beat today then perhaps the atmosphere in the stadium would have been they expected us to get beat again.
“Next week, 52,000 Geordies will be going mad, hoping for us to beat one of the top teams.
“We are in a position where we could perhaps do that.”