Newcastle, who fielded their strongest available team, were swept aside 3-1 as they struggled to penetrate without injured strikers Andy Carroll and Shola Ameobi. Pardew put the defeat down to the effort his side had put into the recent upsurge in their Premier League form and admitted the FA Cup exit has made him even keener to reinforce. "I certainly need one (player) but we are working on the idea that we can get two in," Pardew said. "We had no Andy Carroll, no Shola Ameobi, our two top strikers, and we didn't retain the ball up top at all well. That was a problem for us. Fingers crossed that at least one of those, if not both of those, are back next week and that we add to the squad too. "This competition was important to us. I have tried to focus on that with the players and get them to understand what this was about. They had a grasp of it but we just didn't have the energy to deal with it. That's the truth of it." Even so he felt the need to apologise to the travelling Geordie fans for a performance with just one bright spot, a spectacular 35-yard goal from Joey Barton in injury time. It was scant consolation and Pardew said: "I can only say we are sorry for the result and for the performance because it was the performance level which was the problem. "We were running on empty. It's been such a tough sequence of games. The team was a shadow of the team which played at Wigan and West Ham. Our energy level just couldn't match theirs. In both boxes we got dominated. "We had some key players missing through injury but I played the strongest team I could." To complete a miserable night for Pardew's side they finished the match with 10 men when substitute Cheik Tiote was sent off by referee Andre Mariner for a two-footed challenge although Pardew thought the decision harsh. Pardew added: "I wanted to protect Tiote (by starting him from the bench) because he had a slight strain but that has come back to hurt me. He came on to try to make a difference and has been sent off. "The referee got it wrong. He (Tiote) was fast. He was aggressive in the challenge but in no way was he intending to hurt the player. The ball was going away from the player. I was astonished by that." Pardew, however, was generous in his praise of a Stevenage side determined to exact revenge for their FA Cup exit while a non-league team at the hands of Newcastle 13 years ago. "Our general passing was not of the standard we expect at Newcastle," Pardew said. "But they put us under pressure. They knew we'd had a real tough game against Wigan and West Ham and the lack of game they had really served them well. "In both boxes they were more aggressive than us and it was difficult for us."
