Alan Pardew: 'Champions League is the aim'

Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew has said that the club now possess the right "mentality" and "quality" necessary to end their 43-year wait for a trophy.

However, he believes that qualifying for the Champions League would be a bigger achievement than winning a domestic cup.

"Obviously, we want to win something - you shouldn't be in the game unless you want to win something," he said. "Winning for us would be actually qualifying for the Champions League - that would be winning for us, 100%. It would be like winning a trophy.

"But our fans would like to see a nice big cup, I am sure, and hopefully we can achieve that somewhere down the line.

"We are getting to the stage where there's a mentality and a quality in the group that could win a competition such as the this."

Pardew was speaking ahead of the Magpies' trip to Manchester United in round three of the League Cup this evening.