Pardew's much-changed team - he fielded only two of the men who started Saturday's 1-1 Premier League draw at Aston Villa - took the lead on four occasions at the City Ground, but were pegged back three times as their npower Championship hosts made them fight all the way to the whistle. Skipper Fabricio Coloccini eventually sealed the win in injury time at the end of extra-time to leave his manager dreaming of an extended run in the competition. Pardew said: "It's a competition where we will be looked at as one of the possible teams who can win it, and we have got to believe that. "We are looking for a home draw because we have had two tough away games. "The first game might have been unglamorous, but to win here at the City Ground is always a good result, so hopefully [we will get] a home draw." Peter Lovenkrands' 39th-minute header looked to have set the visitors on their way, but Robbie Findley levelled with a thunderbolt within seconds of the restart. Lovenkrands struck from the penalty spot on the hour after the impressive Sylvain Marveaux had been dragged back, only for Matt Derbyshire to round debutant goalkeeper Rob Elliot after running on to Jonathan Greening's pass. Danny Simpson looked to have secured victory when his 93rd-minute cross evaded goalkeeper Lee Camp, but it was left to Coloccini to complete the job in injury time at the end of the 120 minutes after Marcus Tudgay struck from close range. Despite the drama, Pardew was able to reflect not only on a win which extended Newcastle's unbeaten start to the season to seven games, but an appearance from Hatem Ben Arfa after almost a year on the sidelines and excellent individual displays from Sylvain Marveaux and debutant Mehdi Abeid. He said: "It was a funny game. When you make nine changes, you kind of know that the team is going to be slightly dysfunctional in some of its play. "But within that team individually, my goodness, we had some outstanding performances tonight. "We are unbeaten, we showed great spirit to come back again, get a knock-back, come back, knock-back, come back, knock-back and still get the winner. "It was fitting that the captain should get it because I did think long and hard about playing him, and I'm glad I did now." Opposite number Steve McClaren was understandably disappointed at the result having seen his players push the Magpies so hard, but delighted to have seen them restore pride after Saturday's home defeat by Derby. He said: "The key thing tonight was restoring pride in the team. The fans wanted to see that and I think they got it, and they got it in abundance. "It was a great response to what has been a very difficult few days, but sometimes, adversity like that is the making of a team and you have to go through it." Meanwhile, Pardew revealed that full-back Davide Santon could return to full training next week after having fluid drained from his injured knee on Monday. He said: "It was a little pea-sized amount of fluid, so there wasn't a lot of fluid on his knee. "We think it's a really good response, but we are not going to rush him. He is going to run tomorrow, we think he is going to train at the weekend - he won't be involved in the [Blackburn] game - and we are hoping on Monday that he is full training. "If he breaks down in any of that period then we will make a decision on Wednesday on whether he has to have surgery. "But at the moment we are very positive."
