Newcastle United players aren't going to see much of their manager in the coming weeks on matchdays.
The good news is they might not require much instruction on Saturday when they begin a seven-match stretch without boss Alan Pardew against lowly Fulham at Craven Cottage.
For Fulham players, the good news is they won't have to worry about being head-butted by an opposing manager after Pardew was banned Tuesday by the FA for doing just that to Hull City's David Meyler on March 1.
"As I have made clear, I deeply regret the incident and again wholeheartedly apologise to all parties for my conduct, which I understand was not acceptable," Pardew told the club's official website. "I will accept the punishment handed down by the FA today. My focus now turns to preparing the team for this weekend's game against Fulham and finishing the season as strongly as possible."
The 72nd-minute touchline incident, which resulted in a £100,000 fine from the club and an additional £60,000 from the FA, overshadowed the Magpies' 4-1 victory at the KC Stadium.
Newcastle (13-4-11) have won consecutive matches for the first time since December and broke out in the attack after scoring once in their past five matches. Moussa Sissoko scored twice while Loic Remy and Vurnon Anita also scored.
Anita's was his first Premier League goal in 49 matches spanning two seasons to help his team retain eighth place on the table with 43 points.
"We had a lot of confidence to win the game and did very well on the counter-attack," said Anita, whose team remains five points back of Everton and Manchester United. "That is the way we thought we were going to score and we did it like that three times. Everybody is very happy because it was a good away win, a good performance and a good three points."
The likelihood of the successful attack continuing could be high, given their next opponent.
Fulham (6-3-20) are winless in nine straight Premier League matches and seven of those have been defeats. They haven't gone winless in this many top-flight games since a 12-match streak in 2007-08.
The Cottagers continue to concede at an alarming rate with a league-high 65 goals against. That's 15 more than second-worst Cardiff City, who beat Fulham 3-1 on Saturday at Cardiff City Stadium in a match with crucial relegation implications.
At the bottom of the table, Fulham need to climb out of a four-point gap between themselves and West Bromwich Albion in the final nine matches.
"We will take a look at what happened during the game and take the best parts out of it. We need to change something and it needs to be quick," defender John Heitinga told the club's official website. "You don't want to be in this situation, but we are, so we need to handle it in a good way. Cardiff was not our best performance so we need to be positive and fight at the weekend."
Lewis Holtby's 59th-minute goal drew the Cottagers even, but they allowed two goals in the next 12 minutes.
Newcastle are looking to complete the double after beating Fulham 1-0 on Aug. 31 at St. James' Park.
The Magpies are 7-1-6 away from St. James' Park this season while the Cottagers have a Premier League-worst 10 points from 14 home matches.
