Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew admits he took a risk by starting Ayoze Perez against Tottenham on Sunday.
The 21-year old Spanish forward, who joined the Magpies from Tenerife in the summer, was handed his first Premier League start at White Hart Lane and repaid the faith by scoring the winner in the 2-1 come-from-behind triumph.
Pardew had not initially planned to go with Perez but was forced to after Papiss Cisse was withdrawn due to a knee problem and it proved a masterstroke after he headed home Remy Cabella's cross in the 58th minute to send the Toon up to 14th with their second win on the trot.
"We were a bit unlucky because we lose Papiss just two hours before the game," the Newcastle boss said.
"We'd worked all week thinking that he'd be fine so it was a bit of a shock to lose him. His knee was swollen today as a reaction to yesterday's training.
"So we had to go with Perez and I knew that probably wouldn't suit him but we needed to give it a go because of the way we'd worked all week."
Emmanuel Adebayor had put Spurs ahead in the 18th minute when he directed Ryan Mason's pass beyond Tim Krul but half-time sub Sammy Ameobi responded for the visitors with a powerful finish from Jack Colback's clever pass prior to Perez's winner.
