MARK HUGHES admits he will have no problem piling the pressure on Alan Pardew on Monday night, but is wary that Newcastle United are turning things around at the wrong time for Stoke City.

The Magpies stunned many of their frustrated fans in midweek when they left Crystal Palace with a fourth round tie against Manchester City secured in the Capital One Cup.

That victory at Selhurst Park arrived just a few days after coming back from two goals down against Hull City to claim a point courtesy of Papiss Cisse’s double.

Had Newcastle lost either of those then the spotlight is likely to have turned on the manager once more, although a planned protest aimed at removing him from his post did not go to plan a week ago.

A trip to the Britannia Stadium is next up for Pardew on Monday night and Hughes thinks Stoke will be up against a different team to that which was short of confidence building up to Hull’s visit to St James’ Park last weekend.

“It’s a difficult business we’re in and you don’t like to see a fellow manager under pressure like that,” said Hughes. “But Alan’s a very experienced Premier League manager. He’s been there a long time in charge of a big club with big demands and big expectations.

“I seem to recall he’s been through similar periods before and he’s come out the other side, so it shows he has the capacity and ability to turn the situation around.

“They’ve started doing that by coming back from a difficult situation in the league, and then they had a great result in midweek, so their confidence is probably higher than it was two games ago.

“From our point of view it’s a bit of a shame they will have had that turn in confidence with those two good performances. We will have to be mindful of that, but we just want to take care of our own business. If that adds to the pressure Alan seems to be under he understands that’s what we have to do.”

Hughes has been through his fair share of managerial problems, having been sacked at both Manchester City and Queens Park Rangers in the past. He has also endured a stuttering start so far this season, winning just one and failing to win at home in the league.

But that sole victory is one more than Newcastle have recorded in the Premier League and Pardew will aim to build on the success at Selhurst Park by ending that wait on Monday in Staffordshire.

He will wait until Monday to decide on his team, although he has a fitness worry over full-back Daryl Janmaat. The Dutchman, a £6m buy from Feyenoord, is still being assessed after being forced off at half-time against Palace with a muscle strain.

Pardew does expect to have Tim Krul, Yoan Gouffran and Cisse available again after illness, with the latter likely to be on the bench as he continues to work towards full match fitness after his knee problem.