Damien Duff, who missed a glorious chance in the first half, grabbed the only goal of Wednesday's game after 67 minutes as the hosts moved up to 12th in the Premier League, despite not hitting the heights of their FA Cup drubbing of Tottenham. Murphy told Sky Sports 2: "Without making excuses, we had a tough game at Anfield last week and against Tottenham on Sunday, and to keep churning out performances is difficult. But in the second half we turned it around a bit. "We were a bit flat and Sunday's win over Tottenham was such a fantastic display that there is a danger you think it will happen again. "But also credit to Newcastle, they showed great spirit after a tough few days, losing their best player. "But we have played better recently and lost games so we were due a scrappy win." Duff did not tone down his celebrations against his former club and he added: "I had been getting a bit of stick all night, I didn't have the best time up there but that was my first goal of the season. "It's taken a while and I'm overjoyed to get three points for the team after a difficult first half of the season." Newcastle boss Alan Pardew admitted his side had not been good enough, and finds himself short of striking options after Shola Ameobi suffered a suspected fractured cheekbone during the contest. That comes barely 48 hours after Andy Carroll was sold to Liverpool on transfer deadline day. "We did not play well enough tonight. The pitch was not he best and didn't help either team, but we did not threaten enough and we could have been a lot better," he said. "They didn't let us play much, it was a tight, tense affair. But we have Arsenal on Saturday and hopefully we will come away with better points. "Shola's injury has not helped our cause, it's a blow and we have to make sure we now play a game that suits the strikers we have available. "The fans understand there was a blow to us on Monday and we need to rally together and I thank them for their support tonight, they were fantastic."
