ALAN PARDEW may still be waiting to enjoy Newcastle United’s first Premier League win of the season, but summer signing Daryl Janmaat thinks the last few weeks prove his team is fighting for the under-fire boss.

Pardew’s position remains under serious scrutiny on Tyneside, where sections of the club’s fans have been demanding he steps down for months.

But Janmaat, a £6m buy from Feyenoord, thinks the standard of recent performances highlights that the manager still has the dressing room trying to keep him in a job.

Newcastle came from behind twice to seal a point at Swansea on Saturday, five days after they could quite easily have clinched a point at Stoke City after an improved second half display at the Britannia Stadium.

There are still those calling for Pardew’s near four-year reign to end, but performances suggest that those calls are not being backed inside the dressing room.

“Yes we are playing for him, we do not want him to get sacked, we want him here,” said Janmaat, who has dropped out of Holland’s squad to face Kazakhstan and Iceland with a hamstring problem.

“He is good for us and we are fighting for him. I don’t listen to what the fans are chanting. I focus on playing the game.”

Mike Ashley, the Newcastle owner, has not wanted to change his manager, but the point secured at the Liberty Stadium last weekend certainly bought Pardew some respite.

The draw meant the squad could head into the international fortnight on the back of a positive result rather than suffering further negativity and the players are well aware of the need for Newcastle to have ended their search after the next match at St James’ Park.

“We have a very important game against Leicester at home when we come back and that is a game we have to win,” said Janmaat. “We must keep working hard and I hope the next sequence of games will see us pick up a few more points.

“We feel like that win is close, we were pretty close at Swansea and now we have to make sure we do it against Leicester. You cannot say there is any lack of effort.

“A point at Swansea was good. The last couple of games we have just missed a little bit with our finishing and if we improve this and keep playing like this the wins will come.

“We fight really hard for each other and that has to be one of the basics, and if we had had a little bit of luck late on we could have won it, but a point is a good result. It was a shame the keeper did well to save my shot but we have to keep going.”

As well as Janmaat’s withdrawal from Holland’s squad, Newcastle team-mate Paul Dummett has had to pull out of the Wales get-together for a double header with Bosnia & Herzegovina and Cyprus. The left-back is sidelined with a muscle problem.

Newcastle, meanwhile, have had ambitious plans for a new state-of-the-art training complex approved. The 3,600sq-m centre will replace the existing site at Benton and North Tyneside Council’s planning committee have given the multi-million pound project the go-ahead.