Graham Poll: "There was nothing surprising or unexpected in watching Alan Pardew explode with rage at St James’ Park this weekend.
"The Newcastle United manager has two distinct sides to his character: a sort of Jekyll and Hyde. The one seen away from the heat of battle is a smiling, charming, innocent ‘cheeky chap’ who is ‘doing ever so well’ on limited resources at Newcastle.
"The other will do whatever is needed to try to wring out any advantage for his team.
"As we have seen, he is also prone to combustible behaviour — and he seems to think that whatever is said or insinuated when under pressure can be forgiven and forgotten with an apology.
"I remember Pardew best for his comments in the tunnel at half-time, when he was always looking to sow seeds of doubt and open up the possibility of gaining his side an advantage.
"He would try to influence you by painting the picture that his team were already getting the rough end of the stick.
"Those observations were delivered ‘in passing’ and usually out of earshot of others, which tended to make them hard to ignore and impossible to report.
"He certainly put his own slant on one particular match when I was refereeing his Charlton team and the whole episode left me open to accusations of favouring his team.
"After that game at The Valley between Charlton and Reading, Pardew said how well I had done in signalling to the bench that one of his players, the on-loan Alex Song, was one foul away from a red card.
"This, he said, had afforded him the opportunity to replace Song. I had no issue with what had happened, but he made it appear that we had arranged the whole thing in the tunnel at half-time, which was untrue."