Alan Pardew wants defensive improvement at Newcastle United

Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew has stressed that his side must "tighten up" at the back following a poor defensive display in their 3-2 defeat to Everton on Monday.

The Toffees raced into a 3-0 half-time lead at Goodison Park, before Newcastle threatened to pull off a remarkable comeback when strikes from Yohan Cabaye and Loic Remy reduced Everton's cushion to just one goal.

It was too little, too late for the Magpies, though, and Pardew was left to bemoan a series of defensive mistakes, which he hinted that he may attempt to correct by changing the personnel of his back line.

"The goals were poor, so poor, in the first half, and defensively we've got to be better than we are at the moment," Pardew told Sky Sports News. But we've got goals in the team, and we've shown that tonight. We had numerous chances apart from the two goals we've scored, but we've got to tighten up, that's for sure.

"Nothing went right for us and the inconsistency being shown was disturbing at one point. We managed in the second half to get ourselves a little better balanced in the team to make some sort of game of it.

"We came out with a bit of pride and almost at the end got more than that, but the goals in the first half were not acceptable for me, and we're going to have to tighten up and make a couple of changes there."

Following Monday's result, only their North-East rivals Sunderland (14) have conceded more Premier League goals than Newcastle (11) this season.