Pardew said: “Make no mistake, Palermo are a very good side although they had less possession than we had.
“They maximised their chances and I think Palermo have a very good chance in this competition.
“I am disappointed of course, disappointed for our fans who have been fantastic tonight.
“I really thought this might be our day today but I think the draw was unkind to us. Palermo have great technical ability.”
“Their goalkeeper was outstanding and we had our chances and when you are in a run we need to take those chances.”, he added.
“If we had scored first it would have been game on. But I could see that once they scored the second goal the Palermo coach was relieved.
“On the first goal we were badly lined up for the free-kick and we should have had someone defending the post. We have tried to work on this but it’s those tiny little things that aren’t working for us right now.”