How high can a dead cat bounce?

After a horrific start to the campaign and what looked like an early season-defining mauling away to Southampton, it appeared the writing was on the wall for Alan Pardew at Newcastle United.

Arranging to loan out two of the supporters favourite players, whilst the club continued to pick up their wages, did the manager of the North East's biggest club no favours either.

The teams form had plummeted alarmingly throughout a turgid 2014, which had began with another sale of the teams best player. The move which saw Yohan Cabayé depart for mega-rich PSG ripped the heart out of a side lacking in guile and creativity.

A summer recruitment drive appeared to address this problem, however with big money signings Seim De Jong (injured) and Rémy Cabella (form) failing to hit the ground running, fan unrest soon spread amongst the toon army.

When Hull City came to St James' Park on the afternoon of September 20th, it had the feel of a 'make or break' 90 minutes for the Alan Pardew era. With ousted former player Hatem Ben Arfa fanning the flames further, sitting amongst the home fans to watch his new team take on NUFC. Almost inevitably Hull City took the lead in a scrappy game early into the second half. When that advantage was doubled with just 25 minutes to play, Pardew had the look of a broken man on the touchline. The home support began to bay for blood once more.

Incredibly, at that moment, Pardew took what appeared to be his final throw of the dice. He chucked on Papiss Cissé, a player who had returned to full training just two days previously from a broken knee cap, and whose form over the last 2 seasons had tailed off so dramatically that last year he mustered just two league goals all campaign. Within 15 minutes he had equaled that tally already this season. A point was rescued, and the manager survived for another day.

A mid-week victory followed away to Crystal Palace in the Carling Cup, along with a similar 2-2 draw - and two more Papiss Cissé equalisers - the following weekend at the Liberty Stadium.

This brought us to the international break, with Newcastle stranded at the foot of the table, alongside Burnley. The manager was in a position in which his every decision was under scrutiny, and for every mistake he was vilified more.

A local newspaper poll in the Chronicle found that some 96% of 100,000 supporters believed that Pardew had to go (and let's face it the other 4% were probably Sunderland supporters!) and local journalist Mark Douglas published an opinion piece on September 25th, warning that any upturn in the clubs immediate form was nothing more than a 'dead cat bounce'. Read the article in full here: http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/sport-opinion/mark-douglas-witness-alan-pardews-7835452

The first game after the international break was at home to Leicester City. The game was decided by a single goal via Gabriel Obertan and NUFC had their first league win of the season.

That was two weeks ago.

What had happened since has been quite remarkable.

For a struggling side, lacking in form and belief, to come from behind to win against Tottenham at White Hart Lane, then follow that up with another away win four days later in the Carling Cup against the current holders and premier league champions, Manchester City, was incredible. But today, the story took an even bigger twist.

A young, largely inexperienced Newcastle side took apart a talented Liverpool side, and stood resolute and strong against any attacks from Mario Balotelli and co. A side which included academy lads like Paul Dummett, Mehdi Abeid, Sammy Ameobi and Rolando Aarons, alongside a young striker bought for the development pool - Ayoze Perez - largely outclassed another multi-million pound outfit.

The side is now back in the top half of the division, and astonishingly now just one point behind today's opponents.

I am not his biggest fan, and admit that I called for his head a few weeks ago. But credit and respect must go to Alan Pardew for this recent turnaround, and also to the much-maligned Mike Ashley, for showing fellow Premiership club owners that sometimes the answer is not always to just sack the manager in hard times.

Tonight is a night to pay the club on the back and smile at last, before turning attentions to the next fixture and keeping the momentum going.

It is also perhaps a good idea to reflect and ponder: just how high CAN a dead cat bounce then?